


Parasite

by Ghosty842



Series: Scentless and Senseless [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: (I don't own Zeta's at all - All credit to PoisonJack), Alpha Hank Anderson, Alternative Universe - Omegaverse, Angst with a dash of hope, Background Character Death, Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship, Connor & North (Detroit: Become Human) Friendship, Connor is a Zeta, Criminal investigation that goes nowhere, Discrimination, Gen, Good Parent Amanda (Detroit: Become Human), Grief/Mourning, Hank is a dick until he isn't, Human Connor (Detroit: Become Human), It's iNtRoSpEcTiOn man, Kamski isn't a total cunt? Wow, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Norman Jayden is there for a second, Scents & Smells, This isn't a Case Fic, kinda disabled character if you want to think of it that way, zeta AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:00:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 32,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24030943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghosty842/pseuds/Ghosty842
Summary: "Lieutenant Anderson?"Hank jumped in his seat, spinning around to see who managed to sneak up on him. "Who wants to know?"The young man in front of him had piercing brown eyes that instantly put him on edge for some reason. He looked like a regular alpha but there was something off about him. It took him a moment to realize it- He didn't have a scent."Hello Lieutenant Anderson, my name is Connor. I've been told we'll be working together."---Omegaverse AU where Connor is scentless
Relationships: Connor & North (Detroit: Become Human), Hank Anderson/Connor
Series: Scentless and Senseless [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1941379
Comments: 34
Kudos: 129





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PoisonJack](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoisonJack/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Zeta](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8518537) by [PoisonJack](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoisonJack/pseuds/PoisonJack). 



"A Zeta? What is that?" 

"It's the term used for an extremely rare genetic mutation, a missing genome causing your son's secondary sex to not come through properly." 

"But.. There are treatments available right?" 

"I'm sorry, Ms Stern." The doctors tone said it all. "There are specialists you could go to but even then the funding just isn't there." 

"I understand...Thank you doctor. Come on Connor, why don't we go get ice cream?"

"Okay mother..." 

Connor always knew he was different. Even before he had a name for it, back in foster care he'd noticed everyone else seemed to give off a unique smell while he didn't, it was like he was invisible to the people around him. 

"Don't worry sweetheart. We'll go to a specialist, everything will work out. Everything will be fine..." She sounded like she was trying to assure herself too. Her usual diesel and smoke scent souring. 

He wondered if Amanda regretted adopting him.

ζ

It took a few months to get an appointment with a specialist, Professor Manfred. 

The Manfred clinic was quite a surprise, he'd never met anyone like him before but the waiting room was full of them. He got talking to another zeta, Elijah Kamski. 

Elijah was a good bit older than him, basically already a teenager while he was still only seven. He'd walked right up to Connor, checking him like livestock before giving an empathetic sigh. "You'd have made a good alpha." 

"Thanks..." Not like it really mattered now. "What are you?"

"Nothing that matters." 

Connor frowned at the lack of an answer, "Does it get any easier?"

That seemed to shut the elder up for a second. "Not really." He admitted, casting a glance at Amanda. She smelled furious. "...It can." He amended. "If you play to your strengths." 

"What strengths?" 

"You know, the benefits. You won't have any ruts to deal with, so you'll get a lot more work done. And no one will ever know what you're feeling, makes it easy to get your way."

"Connor, it's your turn." Amanda called, attempting to rush him away from the older Zeta. He noticed the other kid was right, he could smell his mother's frustration and worry but nothing from the other Zeta. _Huh..._

"Okay, Nice to meet you-?" 

"Elijah. Good luck, Connor." 

He met North soon after Elijah. North was only a few months older than him. She claimed she was supposed to be an omega, and was a bit upset she wouldn't get the chance to be one. Amanda didn't seem as defensive around North so they were allowed play together at the park next to the specialists office.

"I mean look at this useless thing! It's like a grain of rice!" She growled, pinching at her neck where a bonding gland should be, Connor leaned over to get a look. He had to agree with her, although Amanda was a single alpha parent they'd been to enough specialist clinics that by now he at least knew what a bonding gland should look like. North's wasn't even a third of what it should be. "It sucks you know, everyone else gets boyfriends or girlfriends but no one looks twice at me! And I know I'm the prettiest in class." 

"I know." He nodded along mournfully. 

"It'd be so much easier if I didn't have the stupid instincts either... I still want to be looked at and hugged and told I'm pretty." She growled, leaning back on the swing as far as she could. 

Connor nodded along before taking the chance to lean over and pet her. "You're pretty." 

She let out a strained laugh. "I know. But thanks... It's nice to hear it." She sat up, "Hey, give me your phone!" 

"What-why?" 

"So we can stay in contact. Here, put your number in mine." She tossed her phone over so carelessly, he had to jump out of the swing to catch it. 

"Okay, okay.." Wow, omegas were bossy. He handed her his phone so they could trade numbers. 

North hummed as she typed away quickly. "You should take up swimming." 

"Why?" 

"It's easier to make friends. People don't notice you're weird as quickly. My moms always bring me." 

"Hm. I'll look into it." 

ζ

If Junior High was bad High school was terrible. 

For starters comprehensive sex ed. Probably embarrassing to most guys his age and none of it really news to him after all the doctor visits and specialists he'd been to throughout the years. He'd heard the terms thrown around so much he didn't even get a few awkward giggles at them like some of his classmates.

He got a few pointed stares too, mostly when the topic of scent and it's importance to mating was brought up. He could have died of mortification when some asshole kid brought him up, and of course it'd have to be the only question he didn't want the answer to; "What about Connor? He doesn't have a scent, how will he get a mate?" 

The instructor froze up for a moment, not having encountered anything like that before. She even seemed like she was trying to scent him out. "Well... That's a very rude question." 

And didn't that just answer it.

A crushing revelation he probably should have expected. 

He never thought he'd miss his junior high's abstinence only policy. 

On top of that, everyone's scents had finally settled and they were so much stronger. Alpha's were finally figuring out they could use it to push people around, omega's that they could influence other people into doing things for them, even beta's realized their scent were good at calming people down and keep the peace.

Then there was Connor in the middle of it all, unable to do much of anything. Occasionally a beta or omega would take pity on him and sit with him, but every time without fail they'd get jittery and nervous at the uncanny valley effect he gave off.

It sucked, he felt like he was missing out on a whole method of communication. Eventually he just gave up trying to make people comfortable with his presence and leaned into it. Whenever someone approached him, like the omega class president asking him to do something with that sweet alluring scent he'd stare blankly or give dry answers back while their scent quickly soured at the lack of response and he was left alone again. He wondered if this was one of the 'benefits' Elijah was talking about. 

He grew to especially hate the locker rooms, not only because of the relentless teasing questions about why he even needed to shower but for the unforeseen consequence of not having his own scent. Every damned alpha and omega's scent stuck to him like a layer of grime he couldn't scrub off no matter how hard he tried. He got stuck with the nickname 'The Leech' for apparently leeching the scent off of _proper_ alpha's.

The only friends he actually had were online, people who couldn't tell he wasn't normal. North and Elijah too, of course.

Eli had started university so he wasn't able to talk as often but North was always willing to talk. Unfortunately she mostly talked about dating, how the only guys who seemed interested in her were egotistical maniacs who got off on their own scent and gross assholes who heard she couldn't get pregnant and wanted to knot her. She'd also talk about skipping class and the things she got up to. It seemed she'd taken to causing trouble for attention, he couldn't really blame her. It was hard to get noticed. 

Probably felt worse for her, from what he'd seen of teenage omegas they liked to be the center of attention. 

In his last year of high school he had his first relationship - An omega named Traci. She was cute and sweet and smelt like heaven. Fruity and clean, like fresh linens. She didn't seem too bothered by his dynamic or lack there off. They were pretty serious, as serious as any teenage romance could be. Right until she asked him to join her for her heat, when their incompatible natures clashed. 

It wasn't something they could brush off and Traci's instincts considered him a threat after that.

Elijah had told him not to let it get to him too much and just compromise; Only go for betas or other alphas. 

That'd be easier if he didn't have the damned alpha urges to claim an omega, have kids, do all the things he couldn't... 

After high school he didn't know what to do, all he knew was he didn't want to burden his mother for much longer. Amanda had already spent a small fortune on him, he wanted to finally give something back. He'd applied for a few colleges, even got a few calls for interviews but they'd been incredibly tense every time no matter how hard he tried to be warm and open. Once someone couldn't get a scent off him it always went downhill, they never called him back. He'd done pretty well in school, he couldn't help but think if he had been a proper alpha, or even a beta he'd be able to take his pick of colleges. Then again Elijah got into university and he was a zeta, so maybe he was just fooling himself.

The Equal Opportunities Employment Act made it illegal to discriminate against someone on the for their endotype but he wasn't sure if zeta's were covered by that and even if they were it wasn't like he had the money to bring them to court for it.

While attending a job fair he noticed a strange scent in the air. Smelt like an alpha, but a sickly one. He smelt of chemicals, burnt coffee and stale aftershave. Out of curiosity he followed it to a stall near the army recruitment. There was only one alpha running it, he had a small scar on his cheek and he looked twitchy. Like he was on speed or something. 

Connor glanced at the booth. Police recruitment. Huh...

"You ever consider a job in law enforcement?" The alpha asked, looking him over suspiciously. Clearly trying to get a scent from him. 

Connor blinked, "I... I didn't think they'd accept me. It seems like an alpha-centric field." 

"Yeah it is, but it's not like the 70's anymore. Lot more acceptin' now, got weak glands myself. You'd be useful as a profiler or negotiator, I'd say you get right under douchebags skin. Hows your nose?" 

Connor was stunned silent for a moment, he'd never had anyone other than his mother tell him he had potential. "Better than most, I'd wager." 

"Hm." The alpha drummed his fingers on the desk for a moment before pulling over one of the flyers and scribbling out a name and phone number onto the back of it. "Here. Not a ton of people signing up lately, mostly betas, they got shitty senses of smell. You got a decent chance of gettin' in." 

Connor couldn't believe it, it felt like some crazy dream he'd wake up from any second now. "Thank you." 

The alpha nodded to him, settling back down but not taking his eyes off him. Connor didn't waste any time, he went right outside to the quietest area on campus and called the number. Police training boot camp... Should he go for it? It wasn't like he had a lot of other options. "Hello, my name's Connor. You wouldn't happen to be recruiting would you?" 

Within a week he was accepted. He really thought he wouldn't pass the physical standard test but surprisingly although the doctors hadn't heard of a Zeta before they passed him through as a Beta. Even when his instructor noticed something off about him he didn't ask any questions. 

It was strange. For a moment he indulged in the idea that scents were only a big deal to people in high school and now that it was over with things would be easier. That didn't last long though. 

Once the trainees were gathered he was singled out in no time. He wasn't even bullied for it now, just left out of the loop. It was like he was cursed with a sense of otherness he could never escape from. 

He did alright in physical training- better than the beta's, not quite as amazing as the alpha's.

Where he really stood out was the high stress scenarios; interrogations especially. Although he couldn't produce strong alpha pheromones to intimidate suspects or a calm cocky scent to lull them into a false sense of security his lack of a tell really threw people. It seemed his natural talent of being difficult to orientate yourself around was actually working out in his favor for once. 

He really leaned into the role once he found it. A man who held his cards close to his chest and never let on how much he knew.

After graduating the academy he was offered a negotiation course. Of course he took it immediately. 

Being a zeta ended up being quite the advantage, since he'd lived his entire life without being able to rely on scents so he was used to verbal deescalation. The betas he was training with had to learn not to fall back on scent when there was a good chance they wouldn't be within range for it to have any effect. Eventually some of his classmates would even come to him for tips and pointers. 

He passed with flying colors and it didn't take long for various branches to begin reaching out to him with job offers despite his rookie status. It was the closest he'd felt to being a rockstar. 

The job was fairly easy; talk down jumpers, the odd hostage scenario but interrogations where his favorite. It wasn't often he got a chance to do them but when he did he always got results. It seemed like alphas and omegas especially cracked under his presence. Something about the lack of a scent really tugged at a guilty conscience, often times he could just sit there silently for a while and they'd start talking, couldn't shut them up if you tried. 

He heard around the office that his antics earned him a new nickname, the Parasite. For his uncanny ability to get under folks skin and eat away at them. 

Connor wasn't sure what to make of that new title, but he didn't think he liked it. 

After a few years the parasite put in for a position as a detective in Detroit. 

ζ

Working as a detective wasn't going to be anything like working SWAT. Despite the popular belief that SWAT teams where made up of the biggest toughest alphas out there it was definitely a beta's club. Maybe that's why someone like Connor could rise so quickly through the ranks? 

Walking into his new department the smell hit him first, a lot of alphas. A lot of strong, stubborn and ambitious alphas in a small space. The territorial scent markers in the station were overwhelming, he felt like a rookie again. The zeta refused to let it show as he strode in with a typical alpha swagger. Calm, assertive and precise- Those were the traits he tried to embody. Positives to distract from the inescapable negative.

The girls at the front desk were both betas, thankfully.

"Offic-I'm sorry, Detective Connor Stern. I'm expected."

"One moment please," Chloe- according to her name tag- typed away at her screen for a second. "Alright, go ahead through." She smiled politely. 

Connor gave her a polite nod back before heading though to the bullpen. It was a nicer setup than his last department. Cleaner.

Captain Fowler was waiting for him at the door of his office, watching him suspiciously. The astringent scent of suppressants wafted off him. "Connor right? Take a seat." 

He did as he was told, trying to be mindful of his body language. Didn't want to give off a bad impression with his foot barely in the door. "I want to thank you again for this opportunity, Sir." 

"Yeah... Not very often we get cops looking for a transfer _into_ Detroit."

They'd been over this during his interview, everyone suspected he was forced to transfer. Mostly under the assumption being a detective was somehow a demotion from his previous position. (It certainly paid less anyways) His previous Captain's eagerness to get rid of him certainly didn't help his case. Connor put on a polite smile, "I've been told I was unconventional quite a few time in my life, sir." 

"Yeah, I'm sure." The Captain looked him over once more, "We're short on detectives at the moment, Lieutenant Anderson will have to show you the ropes... You'll have to talk to the front desk for your login information. Make sure you're in the system." 

"Understood Sir. Is there anything else?"

"No, that's all for now... Hank's not in at the moment, go get yourself sorted." Fowler ordered. 

Connor nodded, getting up to do just that. "Where is my desk?" He asked before leaving.

The Captain was already getting back to work, phone to his ear. "There." He pointed out a desk near the closest corner to them. Convenient. "Close the door on your way out."

"Thank you." Before heading to check out his new desk he went back to Chloe for his login information and decided to get set up while he waited for the Lieutenant to arrive. Strange that the Lieutenant wasn't already here, he must've went out for a very early lunch... 

Ignoring the MIA Lieutenant for now he figured he may as well get used to the computer systems here. The OS was completely different, a bit more cutting edge. There weren't any files open to him right now but he managed to root out a few old closed cases to see how he should write his new reports and maybe even familiarize himself with some of the other detectives before meeting them in person. Apparently the Lieutenant was quite the hero, he'd headed a task force that brought down some of the biggest drug rings in the city.

After a few minutes reading up on his co-workers solved cases, Connor figured he should get acquainted with the coffee machine, he'd probably be seeing a lot of it if his hours were as erratic as his last job. 

He'd only just walked into the breakroom when he smelt it. That awful itchy feeling tangy scent of an unmated alpha approaching rut. He was surprised the alpha wasn't sent home yet, his continued presence would be putting the whole office on edge. They really must be short on detectives. 

"What the fuck is this?" Speak of the hormone filled devil.. 

"Hello, my name is Connor." He turned to greet his new colleague, knowing better than to try and ignore an alpha when they were getting into such a volatile state. Again, he missed his all beta team... Dealing with this shit was bad enough in High school.

The alpha was a good few inches shorter than himself but he carried himself like he was the apex alpha in the room. Which he technically was thanks to a lack of competition. He smelt like charcoal and cinnamon. It was stifling. He glared up at him, making his disgust known, "What the hell are you?" 

Alright, he'd been prepared for this. He took out the laminated card he held in his wallet with the text: _"Excuse my lack of scent, I'm a zeta."_ with additional information printed on the back and a website link if they were still curious. Cut down the time he wasted giving the same annoying explanation every time someone asked. 

The shorter alpha didn't even give it a proper glance before tossing it away. "Real cute, givin' people homework before you even met them. What the fuck are you? An android? Some kind of emotionless mutant?" He growled, getting into his personal space. 

The alpha in him demanded he stood his ground, "No, I'm a human. I didn't mean any disrespect-" 

"You're a god damn charity case is what you are. Some diversity hire going to take up desk space!." 

"If you say so." He tried to display deference to the other alpha, but of course it got misconstrued as sarcasm. The other alpha shoved him against the vending machine.

"You pompous prick!" He snarled right into his ear. "Don't get so fuckin' cocky, you won't last a fuckin' week!" 

"Gavin, I'm going for a smoke break. Care to join me?" A woman, omega by the smell of her called. Connor had to admire her bravery for getting in the way of an enraged alpha but was also a bit concerned she was willing to risk unintentionally escalating the situation.

The alpha glared at him for a bit longer, daring him to make any sudden movements or show of fear before reluctantly letting him go. Bitter tinge of unease in his scent. "Tsk, not worth my time anyway." 'Gavin' followed the omega out leaving the zeta alone again. He couldn't even get any coffee, it all stunk of agitated alpha. He picked up his zeta card with a sigh. 

Maybe it was a mistake coming here... 

He'd only just sat back down when another alpha approached him. He had to force himself to remain calm despite the earlier skirmish. The alpha ignored him completely, sitting down at the Lieutenant's desk. Ah, this must be Anderson. He got up to greet his new partner. "Lieutenant Anderson?"

The alpha jumped, spinning in his chair to face him. He was tall and intimidating, with wild gray hair and deep wrinkle lines all across his face. Possibly more hidden beneath his scraggly beard. He smelt like gunpowder, pine and damp earth, reminiscent of a campfire on a winter night and he carried himself with the strange confidence of an angry and confused lion. Even his fashion sense seemed like a visual assault of vibrant colors clashing with ugly shapes.

Connor despised him immediately.

"Who wants to know?"

"Hello Lieutenant Anderson, my name is Connor. I've been told we'll be working together." He looked him up and down, keeping his assessment to himself. "It's an honor to finally meet you sir." 

The alpha's displeasure burnt his nose as he rose to his feet, glaring right over the zeta towards the captain. He made no secret of trying to get a scent from him.

Not wanting a repeat of a few minutes ago, he instead offered his usual tangent. "You're confused, I don't have a scent- I probably smell fairly annoyed right now but I assure you I'm not. I just had a slight run in with our co-worker Gavin, I didn't catch his full name or rank." 

"Hm." The Lieutenant pushed right past him into the Captain's office, the door didn't even close behind him before he'd went off. "You're making me work with the freak?!" The sound proof office blocked out the rest of his complaints. 

Connor tried to play it off, just sitting back at his desk and trying to ignore the few stares that outburst had attracted. It never failed to surprise him what the senior cops could get away with. 

The old alpha stormed out of the office a while later, clearly after being chewed out by the Captain. He flopped down into his seat, making a point of ignoring him. While he stewed in his own frustration, Connor took the risk of discreetly scenting him. Anderson had the minty hint of a mate but no wedding ring. Either he was some kind of hippy new age alpha or he was one of those elitist son of a bitches that thought of marriage as something for beta's. Something lesser than bonding. Given his reaction to him, Connor was willing to bet it was the latter. Although the whisper of a mate was fairly old implying they were either separated, dead or not on good terms at the moment. 

"I'm going to make some coffee, would you like some?" He asked, trying to break the ice at least. He didn't get a response but it wasn't a no so he got up to go make them both a cup. "I'm looking forward to working with you," He told him as cheerily as he could considering all the animosity he was getting, handing him the coffee.

Lieutenant Anderson watched him with open hostility. "So... What the hell are you supposed to be? You look like you could be an alpha or a beta." 

"I'm neither. Bad genes, I'm afraid." That wasn't really news to him, he'd heard he was fairly androgynous. Made sense, a lot of the time the only tell a person had for their endotype was their scent. "I'm a zeta. But I prefer 'Connor'." He offered the card again, hoping his attempt at levity would smooth over the situation. 

"This is too fuckin' weird.." He grumbled, turning back to his desktop. 

Right... Well, maybe if he showed competence he could get away from the Lieutenant sooner.

It didn't take long for a case to find it's way to the Lieutenant's desk. He let out a thunderous growl, "Fuck.. Alright you. You aware of spiral search methods and grid searches?" 

Connor sat up, "Yes, I'm aware of crime scene procedure. I've been doing night classes the last four years-"

"Okay good. Don't fuck up your first crime scene, or you won't get another chance." 

"Of course, Lieutenant Anderson."

Connor was no stranger to crime scenes, but he was more used to the more chaotic active crime scenes. This one had to be a few weeks old at least according to the woeful smell of the body. It was a stabbing victim left in a derelict old town house. The corpse's stench was indescribably awful.

Even the dead had a scent. 

"Gonna throw up rookie?" The lieutenant taunted, checking up on him. 

"Hardly, although I appreciate your concern." 

"Huh... So you just can't smell or you're a complete sociopath?"

He didn't take the obvious bait. "It smells like our victim was an omega, never mated, quite the fan of liquor and if I'm recognizing those chemicals- a junkie." He took another whiff, "I'd estimate he's been here... just under two weeks. So the assailant's scent is likely long gone by now, or at least indistinguishable from the decay."

"Jesus... Guess that answers that..." 

Connor ignored him for a moment examining the body from a few feet away, the smell was too oppressive to comfortably get much closer. There were multiple stab wounds, all of them deep, the omega didn't put up much of a fight by the looks of things. Huh... "Why stabbing?" 

The lieutenant had been searching the next room before glancing back in, "What?" 

"Why was he stabbed? Michigan has open carry- it's very easy to get a gun if you're a law abiding citizen and with the rate of gun crime even if you aren't there's no shortage. So why stab someone to death? And why so brutally? This seems personal." 

"Yeah, well maybe they were too high to see straight." The alpha cuffed dismissively, purposefully being obtuse. 

"Maybe. The victim doesn't have the typical defensive wounds... Almost like he didn't fight back." Connor stood up from his examination. "Was the murder weapon found?"

"You should ask the head CSI nerd. "

Oh, right. He'd completely ignored the lab techs cataloging everything. That was a rookie mistake...

The alpha scoffed, "Don't touch anything- And don't jump in three steps ahead alright?" 

"Yes sir."

Great, strike one. 

The Lieutenant returned a few minutes later, "We got a positive ID on the victim. Turns out this guy wasn't an angel himself-surprise surprise. Got a warrant out for assault with a deadly weapon, petty theft, possession of narcotics, possession with intent to sell, domestic abuse and unpaid fines. Name's Tony Brighton." 

"Sounds like he'd have a lot enemies." 

"Yeah I'll say... No wonder he ended up here. Knifes in the kitchen." The Lieutenant huffed, moving into the other room. This time Connor followed. 

The knife was in the sink, unwashed. The coppery trace of dried blood still covering it. "Dumb ass murderer must've forgot this area got the waterlines cut off in the 90's." 

"If it's still here then the murderer likely panicked. They weren't thinking rationally or they'd have taken the knife with them or thrown it out at least, the rain would have done away with any evidence." 

The older man scoffed. "Whoever did it was probably high off his knot, obviously they weren't thinking clearly." 

"That still doesn't explain why the victim didn't fight back?" He glanced back towards the other room. "They were on Red Ice right? That's a stimulant. Wouldn't it have taken a lot more to render them completely impassive?" 

"Oh fuck," The Lieutenant seemed to reach the same conclusion. "You think he was in heat?" 

"That seems like a logical conclusion." He nodded, "Does his file say anything about a friend or partner he'd go to for protection? More than likely an alpha." 

"Let's find out." 

The lead wasn't much but it was somewhere to start, but trying to track down the friends and associates of a murdered junkie was a lot harder than it sounded. They were left waiting for the blood work to return before they could do much else, the witness statements weren't exactly useful. 

"I don't think it was an alpha." Connor mused, mostly just trying to fill the tense silence. "If the victim was in heat most alpha's first instinct isn't to harm them. Sexual assault maybe, but stabbing them over 28 times? That doesn't make sense." 

"What do you know about alphas?" The Lieutenant mocked, scent betraying his continued apprehension towards the younger scentless cop. 

"Quite a lot. My mother was one."

"Mother?"

"I didn't just materialize out of thin air." 

"Well, certainly smell like it." 

He bit his tongue to avoid another hostile encounter on his first day. "I suppose so." He tried to get back on topic, "It's far more likely a beta or even another omega was the culprit. Enhanced aggression is one of the side effects of Red Ice, omega's tend to hate it when they're around other omegas close to heat. But that level of aggression... Are we sure Mr. Brighton wasn't gang affiliated?" 

The alpha let out an irritated groan, "I'm goin' to the can." He shuffled off dismissively. 

That man had to be the most frustrating colleague Connor had the displeasure of working with... How he made it to the rank of Lieutenant was the true mystery!

The former negotiator had to force himself to cool down, that damn rut scent hanging in the air was getting to him. Lieutenant Anderson was a decorated officer, he could probably learn something from him. When the older man returned form the bathroom he shifted over to perch on his desk as mellow and non threatening as possible. 

"I just want to help you solve this case, Lieutenant." He tried, "I understand my presence is uncomfortable for you-"

He hadn't even noticed the alpha moved until his back was slammed against the hard wall next to their desks. The impact was so sudden and forceful it knocked the air out of his lungs. "Listen here you blank bastard," The Lieutenant snarled, fists tightening on his jacket. Connor could hear the stitches in his new suit tearing. The alpha's usual woodsy scent replaced with unfiltered venomous contempt. "You don't get to prance in here and push me around. I don't know where the fuck you came from but that shit doesn't fly in this station." His nostrils flared and the lack of response only seemed to make it worse. "Get out of my face and let me worry about solving my own damn cases!" His voice dropped to a low growl "Or we're gonna have a problem."

Connor met his glare head on, not wanting to show weakness around a pack of alphas. He'd never gain any respect if he did. "Whatever you say Lieutenant." He kept his face and tone impassive, trying not to let his humiliated anger show. He wasn't some newbie these knothead fucks could order around. He'd been a cop for a little over a decade by now! He'd earned his place!

Lieutenant Anderson narrowed his eyes, shoving him back into the bullpen. "Good. Now screw off."

Connor stood up and straightened his tie, "Excuse me for a moment." 

He made his way into the department bathrooms quickly checking that no one else was in any of the stalls before locking himself in. Once he was alone he loosened the tie again, bracing himself on the sink to try get his breathing under control. His hyperventilating causing his vision to blur.

He never thought he'd miss the mild mostly unchanging beta scent of his old department. Stupid alpha's and their damned sharp spiced scents, at least working with betas he couldn't smell their disgust and hatred. It didn't get caught in the back of his throat so thick it was impossible to breathe around.

How he hated that scent, hated how defenseless he was against it. 

Waving for the motion sensor taps to start he focused in on the sound of running water, the low hum of the lights, the draft from the air conditioner carrying a cool fresh breeze and the sight of his hands white-knuckled and shaking before him.

His breathing began to level off. 

To think if things had been different he'd be one of them... He glanced at himself in the mirror, making sure he didn't look flustered. "They're not any better than you." He growled to himself. They'll know that soon enough.

ζ

He'd been working in Detroit for almost a year when out of the blue one day, North messaged him saying she was in town and wanted to meet up. 

It had been a while since they met in person and he had some sick leave saved up and no active cases that demanded his immediate attention- At least not tonight anyways- so he agreed to meet at a local bar. 

When they were kids he'd mostly been humoring her telling her she was pretty, but nowadays he was genuinely amazed she was still single. Zeta or not. She greeted him with a hug, apparently already tipsy. "Connie! C'mon let's paint the town red!"

"Hey North," He chuckled, "Don't you think we're getting a bit too old for that?" They were in their thirties for god's sake. 

"Oh, you've always been too serious! Let's have some fun!" 

"You've always been too wild. I've got work tomorrow morning, and I don't recover as easily these days" Then again, he didn't get to see North very often. Those sick days were always there if he needed them... "You are the worst influence I swear." He waved over the bar tender, ordering a beer for now. 

"That's the spirit!" She cackled, pulling him into a booth. 

For a while they talked about everything and nothing, it was nice having a friend around again. He complained about work and the alpha meatheads he was surrounded by, she complained her failed love life and her fading modelling career before circling back to more jovial topics like sports and their constant debate over what Elijah was supposed to be. North was convinced he was supposed to be an alpha but that didn't really check out in Connor's mind, Eli was far to complacent with the idea of never mating - He had to be closer to a beta. 

Without even realizing it the bar was beginning to close up.

"Holy crap, is it four AM already?" Connor slurred, they must have been chatting non-stop for hours. 

North checked her watch, "Ha! See, you do know how to have fun when you really want to."

"Too much fun, I'm gonna need to call a cab...Ugh, I have to be up in two hours. Where are you staying tonight?"

"Aw, I missed my bus.." She pouted, leaning on him heavily. She reeked of booze, he probably wasn't much better. 

He laughed at her recklessness. He wasn't sure if it was an omega thing or just a North thing, but she was so unlike him. "C'mon then, you can spend the night." He helped her up and let her lean on him while they waited for their taxi to arrive. Once the air hit her she was almost out cold. Even as mostly dead weight she was so light. It felt nice to take care of someone else.

They got in so late, even Connor's dogs didn't get up to greet them. North drunkenly cooed at Buddy when he looked over, probably surprised to see his owner bringing someone home. 

God how long had it been since he'd brought an omega -or anyone else home with him?

"You can stay in my bed, jus' lemme grab a blanket." He checked to make sure the other two mutts weren't on the bed and that he didn't have anything embarrassing lying around. He took a spare blanket before heading back out. He froze in the doorway.

North was crying, he could hear her.

"North? Are you okay?" He hurried to her side, hoping she was just drunk. 

She let go of his black Labrador to hug him instead, sniffling into his chest. "I... I didn't come to Michigan to see you." She admitted, "I was tying to adopt a kid." 

"I guess it didn't go too well." Connor was a bit too drunk for this conversation, but he knew how much it killed North that she couldn't have her own children so he tried his best to sober himself up.

"It.. It's not fair! Even female beta's can have their own ba-babies, and I can't even- You know what they said to me?" She snarled,

"No?" 

"Th-they said it wouldn't be fair to the kid to get... to get a mother like me. S-said they'd miss out on vital psychological a-and social development-" 

Connor didn't know what to say.

What was there to say? 

Even he figured that maybe at some point he could have tried adoption, after all he already had first hand experience with the process but... 

So there was no chance for him then? He hadn't had a serious girlfriend since his first, the few that came into his life were fleeting at best and deceitful at worst. He hadn't really screwed around much in his early twenties when he probably should have, and as he'd gotten closer to forty the dating pool kept shirking and most of the people left wanted their own kids so a sterile pseudo alpha wasn't going to draw anyone in.

He'd never get to read any bedtime stories, never get to go to any school plays or graduations, he'd never get to leave any legacy behind... 

"Shit.." He held North close while she cried.

They ended up sharing the bed that night, neither wanting to be alone. He called in sick the next day for the first time in his career. 

ζ

Almost two years he'd been working with the DPD now. Two years and Detective Gavin 'fuckin' Reed was still on his case every damn day making life absolute hell. At first he'd thought Reed was just nervous around him but once the alpha realized he didn't go into a rut his insults got a lot more targeted. 

Reed seemed convinced he was after his job, and no amount of logical arguments against that accusation seemed to get through to him. Connor tried everything; ignoring him, reasoning with him, psyching him out- Nothing ever seemed to permanently get rid of him. 

Connor was trying to get coffee when of course the alpha had to follow him, boxing him in yet again and letting his hateful funk bite at his nose while giving it the same old crap. The zeta had half a mind to toss his drink over the man under the guise of cowering from the small man's wrath.

Without warning the stench in the breakroom got suffocating and thick. The cloud of pheromones so heavy in the air it was almost visible. Connor was paralyzed, getting high on his own cortisol as he watched two alpha's clash next to him. His instincts said to stay and assert dominance but his common sense told him he was demonstrably outclassed. Even if he had his own scent he wasn't nearly strong enough to take on another alpha, let alone two. Fight or flight taking over, yet he was left unable to do either. 

"Do you ever shut up Reed?" The Lieutenant snarled, both a warning and a challenge. "Every damn day you use the same damn jokes and insults, the least you could do is try to be creative for once." 

The smaller alpha turned his attention to the more viable threat. "Like you care about the freak, Hank. You've been callin' him the same shit as the rest of us, just cause you don't do it to his face doesn't make you any better." 

"Why don't you just run along already." 

The two alpha's squared up, looking about ready to rip each other apart before the shorter man backed down. Obviously not liking his odds. "Whatever, enjoy it while it lasts parasite. Hank can't commit to anything." He snarked, sulking back to his desk.

"That motherfucker." The Lieutenant growled, "You okay?" 

With the atmosphere beginning to calm Connor was slowly relaxing. Relived a fight hadn't broken out next to him. God knows he'd reek of it for days if it had. He cleared his throat as casually as possible. "I'm fine Lieutenant. You're intervention was unnecessary but thank you." 

"Unnecessary huh?" He snorted incredulously. 

"Yes. I can defend himself. I don't need you or anyone else sticking up for me." He kept his tone light, not wanting to offend the biggest alpha in the department but honestly rather vexed he'd butted in. "But I appreciate it." He lied with a smile. 

"Uh huh.. Sure you do." He stared at him as if he saw through it. "It's almost lunch, I know a nice place to grab a bite." 

Ahh... That's how it was huh? "No thank you, Lieutenant." He moved to get back to his desk, unfortunately it was still right next to the Lieutenant's.

"Not like that, Jesus." Anderson followed him, sitting at his own desk. "Did anyone ever tell you you're very jaded?" 

"Yes. Many times." He typed away at a word document to look busy. 

"Fuck's sake." The lieutenant glanced over. "Why haven't you told Reed to go screw himself yet?" 

"This is hardly an appropriate workplace discussion." He clipped back dismissively. 

"Cool, come with me to lunch." 

He glared at the alpha. 

"You like burgers? I'm buying." 

"I don't like workplace harassment." 

"It's only harassment if you have something to gain from it. The burgers aren't that good. C'mon, you've been eating those sad looking noodles for weeks now."

Well, he really didn't want to eat alone anymore... Fuck it. "Fine." 

"Great, you just let me know when you're finished with your Enigma code and we'll head out." 

Connor glanced between the random letters he'd been typing and the Lieutenant. The alpha let out a smug laugh. Well shit...

The Lieutenant dropped the greasy takeout lunch onto the table gracelessly before sliding a burger over to the zeta. "So, uh. Reed really seemed to actually get to you today. What's going on there?" 

Connor checked to make sure he got his order right, avoiding eye contact for a moment. "He didn't bother me, you must be projecting." He leveled his usual passive stare at the old alpha.

Hank squared his shoulders, steeling himself to meet the gaze head on. "Yeah sure, you don't smell annoyed but I saw the face you made." 

"You must've imagined it." Hank's words caught him by surprise but he didn't want to let the alpha get into his head any further than he might have already. Nor did he want to consider his co-worker might have actually been trying to protect/pity him for some misguided reason.

"Yeah sure I did." His scent got that same bitter tint to it as he aggressively stabbed a straw into his drink. "Let me just ask- Do you ever get tried of pretending to be an emotionless freak?" 

The old insult barely phased him anymore most days, but this wasn't most days. His face must have betrayed that as the alpha let out a remorseful groan.

"Look... I didn't... Fuck." He ran his fingers through his ragged hair.

"Detective Reed didn't get to me, I just got some bad news this morning." Connor glanced down at the burger the older man got for him, weighing up his options. "My mother died last night."

"Oh. I'm sorry, I... I didn't know." He muttered awkwardly.

Aka, you didn't smell miserable like a normal son should. "Not exactly something I wanted to talk about." He didn't feel particularly hungry but since Hank had been nice enough to buy it for him he figured he should at least try to eat. 

"Wait, didn't you tell Jeff? You probably shouldn't be in today." 

"I asked for time off, the Captain said he'd consider it." Of course he hadn't specified why he'd wanted it. 

"Fuckin' aye... Alright, you leave it to me." Hank let out a resolute growl. 

"I don't want to cause trouble, Lieutenant."

The old alpha shot him an incredulous look. "I know you've got feelings asshole, quit your freaky robot act already. There's no shame in being sad your mother d-passed on." 

"It isn't a big deal, she didn't... There isn't anyone else to worry about, I can plan the funeral to suit me. Think I have this Tuesday off anyway." Connor shrugged and continued averting his gaze, probably acting more docile than he had since he stared working in Detroit. " _In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on._ " 

"Yeah sure, it just get's worse." Hank let out a humorless laugh, giving up and letting the parasite clam up on him again. 

"... I di-didn't think it could." His voice cracked for the first time in years, turning away quickly to compose himself and dry his eyes. Damn it. 

The lieutenant gaped, "Oh shit. Uh, sorry. Fuck..." He shifted over to awkwardly clap his shoulder, still keeping him at arms length. It was so strange to see someone crying without that pitiful scent that usually accompanies despair. 

For some reason that hit him like a punch to the gut. He doubled over the table, burrowing his face into his hands. Struggling in vain to keep his professional persona in place before he made an even bigger fool of himself in front of his superior. 

"Jesus kid... Hey, hey now.. C'mon, I'm taking you home." The older man began wrapping up their lunches, shoving Connor's into his hands.

"No, I'm fine-" 

"Yeah bullshit." He stood up, offering to help him to his feet.

Connor growled to himself, standing without the Lieutenant's aid. The alpha herded him into the passenger seat of his car. "I left my car at the station."

"Give me your keys I'll drop it by later. Whereabouts are you staying?" 

Yeah, and have it stinking of alpha for weeks... "Just drop me off at the station Lieutenant-" 

"Connor, do you have anyone you can call?" The alpha threw some authority into his tone, scent getting heavier. The zeta scowled, sadness quickly morphing into outraged frustration at such a basic trick. One slip up and he was right back to this shit- someone acting like they knew the inner workings of his mind.

"You know I don't." He snarled, He knew Hank knew. Scents stuck to him, if he had managed to make a single damn friend in this whole city he'd have smelt of them by now. 

The car went quiet after that, other than the Lieutenant's shitty music scraping out of the speakers. During the silence he tried to think about it; Was there anyone he could call? He didn't want to burden Eli, he had enough on his plate these days and North was living a few states away so he couldn't just call her to come down. They were usually his go to companions when life got tough.

"Just let me get back to work." It was all he had.

A dead end job and three elderly dogs. To think he'd worked so hard to end up here.

"Look kid, that's a bad idea right now. You're not in the right head space-" 

"How would you know?" He challenged, turning to face the other alpha. "I can keep my personal and professional life separate, Lieutenant." 

"You know you're not. End of discussion. Whereabouts are you stayin'?"

Connor growled, looking out the window stubbornly silent before having to admit defeat. "Fairview. Near Riverside Park." 

For a while silence prevailed. 

"I don't know what to say. For the eulogy, I mean." Apparently he couldn't keep his personal life separate. "I don't even know... I've never had to plan a funeral. I don't even know who to invite. If it's just me there then there's no real point in saying anything but... She did a lot for me, I-... It seems disrespectful to say nothing."

The grizzled alpha gave him a sympathetic look. "... I don't know what to tell you k-Connor. Just... You're um.. You're not disrespectful. Everyone knows that. You're awkward, weird and uncomfortable to be around but you're not disrespectful." 

"Sure." He mumbled into his hand, leaning on his elbow to look out the window.

"... Weren't you some fancy negotiator? You'll know what to say. It'll come to you." 

"I was." 

"Then you'll figure something out." 

Amanda used to read Robert Frost and Paul Durcan poems to him. Maybe one of those? If he couldn't think of anything better in time.

"You sure there's no one you can call?" He hated that pity fueled tone. 

"I'm sure." 

"... You going to be okay?" 

That was the million dollar question now wasn't it? "Of course."

"Alright..." He didn't sound convinced. Not surprising, Connor was off his game today.

"This is my place," He sat up when they got onto his street. 

"Right, I'll drop your car off later. Give me your keys" 

"I can get it tomorrow." He growled but he did take the car key off the chain and reluctantly handed it over. He had enough crap to deal with tomorrow. At least the alpha didn't seem smug about it. 

"Get some rest, detective."

The zeta nodded politely before heading in. Only Buddy and Scout greeted him at the door, so Jack must be off destroying his stuff as usual. No amount of training seemed to break him from that particular habit. Amanda always hated dogs, no amount of childish negotiating could convince her to let him have one. So once he moved out he bought three. It had been funny at the time but she never visited him after that. Not to mention he'd stink of dog almost constantly, in hindsight maybe that's why she never allowed pets? 

He greeted the two at the door before moving into the kitchen to feed them and his fish. He'd always been compared to those androids but right now he truly felt like one. Like he was going through the motions without any real intent. 

The zeta slid onto the couch, staring at his reflection in the TV. Other than the clanging of his pet's food bowls it was completely silent. 

He'd basically made peace with the fact he wasn't going to have any family of his own, but to find out he was completely and utterly alone... What even was there to feel?

How many times had he been 'too busy' to return his mother's calls?

He wished she'd call again now. He'd answer this time.

Scout had finished his meal first and came to nudge him with his nose. Connor offered him a small smile, petting the old collie fondly. His once sharp, fiendish eyes were getting cloudy, when he tried to pull himself up onto the couch he couldn't. To think he used to leap over walls and fences like it was nothing. Where had the time gone? 

He hooked under the old dog's hind leg and helped hoist him up onto the couch beside him. It was nice to feel useful. The collie shifted closer to rest his head on his lap with a happy groan. The other two joined them shortly. 

By the time a knock brought the detective out of his sorrowful nesting he realized it was dark outside. Jesus, how long had he been sitting there? "Coming." 

Unsurprisingly, it was the Lieutenant with his car keys. 

"You could have left them in the post box."

"Your neighborhood is shitty, of course I wouldn't." The alpha growled, glancing at the dogs he'd been piled under before noticing the photo he had near the door of him and his mother. 

Connor quickly turned it over. Stupid knee-jerk reaction that caused him to show his hand, like an idiot.

"That your mom?... I uh.. I see the resemblance." He muttered awkwardly. 

"Very funny, I've heard it all before by people far more eloquent and creative than you." He warned, bristling. Being raised by a single black alpha had been... character building, but he wasn't above going to HR if the alpha tried anything.

Anderson cringed, "Sorry, just... I didn't know you were adopted." 

The zeta scoffed, arms crossed. "It was never your business." 

"I guess not." He conceded, taking a step back. It was strange to see an alpha actually backing down from a challenge, especially from him. "I talked to Jeff, you've got the week off-" 

"Lieutenant-!" 

"No! Your paperwork isn't going anywhere, we can manage a week without you alright? Consider it a rut leave." The elder waved him off briskly, "I'll uh.. See you back in the office." 

Connor growled at the alpha's retreating back, slamming the door in frustration. That son of a bitch!

Getting back to work was a relief.

It was strange how little memory he had of the last week. It was a complete blank. He had one memory of buying dog food, shaking hands with someone Amanda worked with years ago and that was it. 

He should definitely sit on that information, the absolute last thing he wanted was to get sent home again. 

His desk was as he left it, with the exception of a takeout cup left on it. They didn't even use a coaster... He suppressed a growl and went to toss it out before noticing it was still warm, and full. 

"Welcome back, sorry to tell ya but turns out your paperwork couldn't wait. Lawyers are pushy fuckers, huh?" The Lieutenant greeted from his own desk.

Connor tried not to let his irritation show, "Who's coffee is this?" He asked causally. 

"Yours, sorry if it's cold. You're usually in a little earlier." 

"There was traffic." He sniffed the coffee before binning it. 

"Hey! what the Fuck?" The alpha barked, clearly outraged.

"I don't take sugar." 

The Lieutenant's agitated scent was almost amusing. "Seriously? So you don't take milk or sugar? You really are a freak..." 

"I didn't realize you were watching my drink choices. That certainly seems stranger than myself." He went to get his own coffee, trying not to think too much about it. He'd gotten Lieutenant Anderson coffee a ton of times... He didn't recall Anderson ever getting him one before though. 

When he sat back down the Lieutenant made a face as he sipped his drink. "Bitter?" 

"Delicious." 

"Disgusting." He huffed, turning to get back to work. 

Stake-outs were definitely one of the worst parts of the job, so of course he'd get stuck on one his first week back. With none other than Lieutenant Anderson. He never thought he'd wish to be paired with Reed, but at least he minded his own business and didn't try to make conversation. Anderson was a fidgety bastard to be stuck next too for hours on end.

Not to mention the annoying prickly scent; Almost a constant cycle of impatience, anger, boredom and back again. It was nauseating.

The Lieutenant let out possibly the loudest, longest freaking sigh. It really was grating on his nerves."You holdin' up alright?" 

"Of course. You can take a break if you want?" 

"Wh-No, idiot. I mean... How are you holding up since...?" He let the question trail off, uncomfortably.

"Ah... Right." Connor hesitated, not sure how to get away from this topic.

"Look, um... I... I don't really know what the hell to say to you. Can't tell if I'm pissing you off worse or helping you out... I don't think you want me-or anyone to know." The alpha started, "I... I gotta admit, I really didn't think you even had feelings for a while. Kinda got used to seeing you as the p-..." 

"The parasite?" 

"...Yeah." He admitted, looking out the window to avoid making eye contact. "Bet I really pissed you off too, huh?" The lieutenant joked weakly.

"It's fine Lieutenant, not everyone can empathize with someone they can't directly relate too." 

Regret tinged Hank's scent, "I thought I could." 

"Well... You're trying. You're probably trying more than anyone else has in the last few years." 

They ignored the awkward atmosphere for a second. 

"No hard feelings, Lieutenant." Connor muttered, for once he actually meant it.

_Huh..._

ζ

Lunch with the Lieutenant became a lot more common. It wasn't something that happened every day; Their schedule didn't always line up and even if it did occasionally one or both of them was on a roll and couldn't make it, but twice a week at the very least the Lieutenant offered to buy him lunch. It was a strange new routine, Connor wasn't sure what to make of it.

Honestly it was only once the older cop started offering to bring him along he finally noticed that Anderson never really had lunch at the department. He always went to lunch alone too. 

At first they mostly kept to strict business discussions, bouncing ideas off each other and debating alternative circumstances for each other's cases. However, soon enough it became a bit more causal. 

"Figures Reed would have to go into rut during the Gears best season..."

Connor let out a small laugh, "He'd do anything to spite us."

"Say you watch football?"

"What?"

"You know, that game where alpha's run with a ball?" the alpha grumbled sarcastically.

"Jordan Stewart is an omega." he shot back, just to wind the alpha up.

"Ah, so you do watch it."

"Or maybe I just keep that little tidbit of information on hand to rile up alphas?"

The lieutenant looked him up and down before huffing at his inability to read the other. "I wouldn't put it past you... Well, if you do watch it I'm recording the game, gonna watch it tonight."

Connor blinked, was-... Was Hank seriously inviting him to come watch the game with him? Why?

The older man shrugged, giving a valiant effort not to let his disappointment seep into his scent. "It's fine if you're busy-"

"No. No, I'd be happy too join you, Lieutenant." 

"Alright. Cool." The older alpha nodded to himself. "Should be fun." 

"As long as the winning streak holds it will be." 

"Don't jinx it!" He laughed. "What's your poison, I'll pick some up for ya?" 

"I have to be in early tomorrow, probably shouldn't go too crazy." 

"Figures you'd be all straight edge, fuck it then. I got coffee, I'll make it how you like. No sugar, no milk."

He was surprised the Lieutenant remembered that, "Sounds good." 


	2. Chapter 2

When Connor arrived at the address Lieutenant Anderson told him, he had to admit it wasn't what he was expecting. A small suburban bungalow didn't seem to fit the image of the large, rough alpha he worked with. He knocked on the door, trying to ignore the nervous panic coiling in his gut.

Despite the fact he'd been invited he couldn't help but think the Lieutenant would open the door and tell him to get lost, he'd changed his mind. Or he'd found better company for the night.

Connor had to take a step back, it felt like his ribs where crushing his lungs. Almost forgetting how to breathe.

He should just go home; he could watch the highlights by himself.

Jack and Scout might need another walk.

His ears were ringing, he could be getting a migraine- he'd be terrible company. 

He still had some open cases he could go over-maybe he missed something?

Yeah, yeah he should go.

Before he could beat a hasty retreat the door opened, "Oh you actually came. C'mon in, I was gonna order Thai food." The alpha stepped aside to let him in. "Don't mind the mess."

The zeta hesitated for a second before slinking in. This was strange. He wasn't really sure what to do or if it was rude to just sit down without prompting. He noticed a Saint Bernard on the couch. "You have a dog?"

"Yeah, I figured you wouldn't mind. He's friendly."

He approached the dog carefully, usually dog's didn't mind him but occasionally a dog didn't like his unusual nature. Anderson's dog seemed okay. It lumbered over to sniff at him, probably smelling his own dogs off him. "He's nice. What's his name?"

"Sumo." The Lieutenant sat down, fiddling with the remote. It was funny to see a TV that still used one.

"Hello Sumo." He rubbed behind the dogs ear before joining the Lieutenant on the opposite side of the couch, trying not to take up too much space. He didn't want to get in the alpha's way. This was his territory, after all. "Oh, I uh...I noticed you liked pineapple energy drinks so I brought some." he mentioned, taking the six pack out of his bag to offer it to his host.

He thought it'd be rude to not bring something but now it felt awkward, almost as if he was attempting to bribe his way in.

The lieutenant didn't seem to read anything into it at least. "Oh thanks. You want one?"

"No thanks. I don't like carbonated drinks."

"Why does that not surprise me." he scoffed, getting up to put the cans away for later. "Before we get all buddy-buddy you're not from Minnesota are you?"

"Wisconsin. At least that's where I was born. But I grew up in Michigan."

"Ah good. Then we're both against the vikings." The alpha hummed, "That could have been awkward."

"Would you have kicked me out if I was a fan?" he challenged, although he wasn't sure if he should risk antagonizing him like that. Might seem a bit too familiar.

"Only if they won."

"Fair enough."

The alpha switched on the game, fast forwarding to the kickoffs.

It was weird. The zeta had been on countless stakeouts with the Lieutenant but he still didn't really know what to talk about with him, especially not now. At least on the job they could discuss work topics but this?

Nothing had even happened yet to complain or cheer about. Knowing his luck it'd be the first uneventful game in history. Probably end up with nil all like soccer.

Anderson usually started all of their previous conversations but even he must be feeling the tension, if his scent was anything to go by.

They sat in awkward silence for the first quarter before the Lieutenant spoke up.

"Okay, I'm gonna grab a drink. Do you want one?" He asked.

The awkwardness was killing him (along with the fact he'd never watched a game sober- it felt wrong), but he had work tomorrow and this was his boss... "No, thank you."

"Right, right I'll get you coffee then?"

"Sure." The younger detective looked around the room while he could, it was pretty messy. No sign of any mate or other womanly presence. No photos of friends or family. So, Lieutenant Hank Anderson was a rather solitary man, but the reason still evaded him. "... When where you going to order Thai?"

"I'll order now if you want, takes forever to get here. What do you want?"

"I like Khao Soi."

"Alright, I'll order now."

Sumo pulled himself to his feet with a grunt, hobbling to his water bowl before coming over to sniff at the zeta again. "Hello boy," He cooed quietly, the saint Bernard pawed at him. "Giving me the paw? Good boy." He scratched under the fluffy dogs chin.

"Yeah, I regret teaching him that. Never stops now." The older man huffed in faux irritation, passing him his coffee "How'd you end up with so many dogs anyway?"

Connor blinked, "Oh, it's a funny story really... I wasn't allowed to have any pets when I was living with my mother, so once I could support myself and had my own place I couldn't get enough." He took a sip, "I got Buddy first from an old friend as a house warming gift, he seemed lonely so I went to get a friend for him at the pound and ended up with Scout. Jack came from the K9 unit of my old department. He was injured on the job and had to retire early so obviously I took him home with me too." He never could say no to puppies.

Hank seemed to get it. "How'd you manage? I can barely find the time for Sumo, how'd you find the time in SWAT?"

"My department was bigger and the paperwork wasn't nearly as bad, so I had plenty of spare time for them. Didn't really have many friends back home either so, no real distractions. And... I had trouble sleeping for a long time. Pretty chronic insomnia." He mentioned, hoping the alpha wouldn't make a big deal out of it. "Finding time wasn't an issue."

The Lieutenant didn't seem to want to push him too much, thankfully. "Yeah I bet, I remember how scary it was when I got shot at for the first time. Didn't sleep for weeks. How'd you manage doing it every day?"

"We weren't shot at _everyday_ , mostly it was things being thrown at us- concrete blocks, bottles, fireworks, mattresses, dirt... Name it, it's been thrown at us. It's not usually scary in the moment, it's terrifying when you're en route and it's scary when you see it on the news later and think 'Shit, I could have died there' but you're not usually thinking about that when it's happening. At least I wasn't."

"Jesus, I'm glad I never got onto the team then."

"You need to be a really good shot to get on." There was a reason alpha's weren't usually on a SWAT team, the adrenaline and testosterone spikes can lead to excessive brutality, premature ruts, and psychological issues. They were simply too big a risk to public safety. Then again where did that leave Connor, after all he had similar instincts to them? "Luckily I was lead negotiator within 5 years so I wasn't used as a grunt too much after that."

"I wouldn't think negotiations are easier than rushing barricades."

"Well, it's a shame you weren't my captain back then."

"He a real ball buster?"

"You have no idea."

The Lieutenant let out a laugh, "Would I know him?"

He shrugged, "I don't know. His name was Captain Allen, if that rings a bell. He hated me."

"Why? Was he an alpha?"

"No, omega. They really can't stand me. Don't like it when you don't respond to their cheap tricks. Take it very personally." He relaxed back cautiously, still worried about triggering some outrage from the alpha next to him. "Smells are way more important to them afterall."

"You're lucky they can't get to you, they make me act like an idiot." He joked, "So, what do you make of Fowler then?"

"I never said I wasn't effected, but they don't get the response they want and it upsets them every time." He huffed, "I imagine he doesn't like me for very similar reasons but he's a lot more forgiving. He's a good captain, fair but strict."

"No way, you are a mere mortal after all?" He teased, snickering into his drink. Connor tried not to take it personally even if it was a sensitive issue for him. "So, uh, if I'm outta line you can tell me but why don't you smell like anything?"

"I already told you, I'm a zeta."

"What causes it then? Is it like trauma or something? I heard that can fuck up your scent."

"Yes trauma can effect scent but it's a genetic issue, not anything psychological. I never had a scent to begin with. Some mutation in the ABCC11 gene, enzymes not being produced or not doing what they're supposed to or something. There aren't enough of us to do proper research really, so it's anyone's guess."

The alpha processed that for a moment, "Must've sucked growing up like that."

"Before I realized I thought no one could smell their own scent. Kids can be cruel, but I had a supportive family."

"Where'd they go-"

"Now you are overstepping, Lieutenant." He informed him firmly, trying to balance deference with pride.

"Alright, fair enough..." He took a swig, at least he didn't appear to consider him a challenge or threat... Although the detective wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. "So, why didn't you wear any synthetic scents, I know they exist."

"They're illegal in a lot of states, and really expensive. I'm also going to guess by that question you've never tried one."

"Never really needed to. Why?"

"Because they aren't like a normal aftershave, they hurt like hell." He motioned toward his own non functional scent glands. "You have to stretch your glands open and blast a stream of very cold air onto raw nerve-endings. It's like pouring lava into them and it doesn't last more than a few hours so it isn't worth it."

The lieutenant winced at the description. "Jeez-us...That can't be healthy."

"It most certainly isn't. I did go through an awkward phase of synthetic scents, had to take prescription strength painkillers a half an hour beforehand and bite down on a belt putting it on. Got a pretty bad infection from it so I stopped. It wasn't worth the pain." To this day he remembered the white hot agony, completely blinding him every time and causing convulsions. It was like getting electrocuted.

"Fuck me. I don't know how anyone could do that." Discomfort spiced his scent as he shuddered. "Isn't there some medication you can take? Like hormones or something?"

"I already do have to take care of my hormone levels, but no. There's not enough research, but there are ways to treat it in utero. Unfortunately it's been outlawed in most countries too. Some busy bodies claim it's unethical to genetically manipulate babies in the womb, _'It's a slippery slope, first we eliminate the zetan gene then it's down syndrome then it's autism and soon everyone has designer babies'_."

"Isn't the 'slippery slope' thing bullshit?"

"It's a well known logical fallacy, yes. Personally, I wouldn't wish this onto anyone and if I had the option for gene editing I'd take it. But it doesn't work that way, there is no real treatment."

"Well, I'm sorry you don't really have any options."

He shrugged, "It is what it is. No use whining about it."

Hank seemed to think about it for a minute, "What about cybernetics? There has to be some scent glands out there?"

"There isn't. Even if there were, I couldn't afford it. I don't imagine it'd smell natural anyways and if it doesn't smell real then why bother? I probably wouldn't be able to control my scent anyway if I suddenly developed one." He shrugged, "As long as I'm careful of my mannerisms and words I can communicate just fine."

"Still sounds..." He trailed off, probably trying to find a delicate way to put it. Connor waited for him to finish that thought before half time was declared and it was obvious he'd given up.

Back to silence it was then. Although this time it was more companionable.

The doorbell rang not long after the game started back up. "Finally." Hank growled, getting up to get the food. An android stood on the doorstep in it's brightly lit uniform. "Hello order#1179. Thank you for choosing Katoi-"

"Yeah yeah, here's your money. Now get lost." He barked, tossing the change to the floor rudely before slamming the door in it's face. "God those things creep me out."

"Androids? I think they're pretty cool." The detective hummed, sitting up for his meal. "I'd get one if they didn't freak the dogs out so much. And if they were a bit cheaper."

"They're union busting bastards is what they are. You're lucky you got out of SWAT, I guarantee that's the next job they'll take." He placed down the takeout bag, shooing Sumo to bed where the great beast watched them hungrily.

"Unlikely, there's a lot of imagination and flexibility needed working tactics. Android's aren't nearly adaptable enough yet and they probably won't be for another few years at least. If they're even allowed be that intelligent."

"What makes you so in the know about those freaky robots?" He asked, fishing out their food and passing it to the zeta.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." He snapped open his chopsticks.

"You're not gonna tell me you actually are one now, are you?" He joked, but his scent was a little uneasy.

"Of course not! Jeez." He grumbled, "I know the guy who created them."

That made the older man laugh, "Oh that's good one. Yeah, you're right. I don't believe that for a second."

Connor shrugged, "It's true. I was even at his wedding. Eli's the one who got me Buddy. He's offered me one of his robot dogs too, but they freak Jack out-"

"You can stop lying to me right now pal, I ain't buying it. That guy is a billionaire, how would some random cop even meet him eh?" The alpha challenged, tucking into his food.

"We met as kids. Well, I was a kid anyway." He wasn't too disturbed by someone not believing him, it happened fairly often. Another side effect of not having a scent, sarcasm was mostly lost on people and honest statements were met with skepticism.

In fairness to the other cop he probably wouldn't believe it either.

"Oh sure sure. Man you must've made a hell of a negotiator with that poker face."

"I managed," He stirred his soup absently. "It's more than just lying or having a good _'poker face'_ , Lieutenant."

"Yeah? Never met a negotiator I liked before. Is being an asshole part of the training or just a requirement for entry?" This time he couldn't tell if he was joking or not.

"Probably a bit of both, I guess." He shrugged, "It's a tough job to manage, on one hand you've got to empathize with the target but on the other you've got to leave any morality at the door."

"What do you mean?" The alpha frowned.

"I mean, you gotta put a price on everyone's head. Say yes those hostages are worth a few pizzas but no way in hell are they worth 28 million dollars and a car. Gotta keep people talking, keep their focus on you while your comrades get into position to take them out..." He swallowed some noodles, unable to taste them. "Gotta look some very desperate people in the eyes and promise them everything will be okay when you know from experience this could go very wrong at any second... Gotta keep teen runaways and lonely businessmen who lost everything from doing something stupid. Convince them there's something worth living for, even when you know damn well they clearly don't have anything..." He cleared his throat, glancing back at the lieutenant before focusing on the game again. "It's not as sexy as it sounds on TV huh?"

Hank blinked, dumbstruck for a long moment. "Fuck..."

"Yeah."

The rest of the night passed in relative peace after that. Not quite as uncomfortable as a stakeout but less relaxing that spending the night with North or his pets. The bitter hint of unease and pity flavoring the alpha's scent polluting the air for a while. After the game ended he moved to get up, not wanting to overstay his welcome. "It was nice of you to invite me around, Lieutenant." He nodded to him politely. "How much do I owe you?"

"For what?"

"The food?"

"Ah, don't worry about it." He waved him off.

The zeta frowned, "I insist-"

"You've got three dogs to feed, it's fine."

"Well, I recently came into some money I don't mind paying for my half-"

"Do you ever stop arguing?"

"No. Not really."

The Lieutenant scoffed, "Yeah I shoulda guessed that..." He ran a hand over his face. "You can pay next time-"

"I don't need your charity." He told him firmly. "I'm not here for you to pity and protect, sir. Nor am I here to ease your guilty conscience."

Rage peppered the alpha's scent but the Lieutenant took a step back rather than engage. "You really are an asshole, Connor. I'm not trying to pity you for fucks sake!"

"You could have fooled me."

"Jesus Christ, what the hell happened to you to make you so god damn adverse to kindness-"

"You're not being kind, you're being condescending."

"Oh so offering support to a miserable asshole who needs it is condescending?"

"It is when it isn't genuine!"

"And what makes you think I'm not being fuckin' genuine?!" He snapped

"You-" Connor had to bite his tongue. He was going to accuse the lieutenant of keeping him at arms length, only asking questions and answering none but... He hadn't actually asked him anything had he? Come to think of it he rarely ever initiated any conversations or lunch meetings even before this.

Was he that used to being alone and overlooked he stopped even attempting to cultivate friendships?

"Yeah I fuckin' thought so..." Hank hissed, glaring at the floor. Anger still radiating off of him in waves. "You don't even know why you're pissed off do you?"

"... Good night Lieutenant." He shrugged his coat on and left before the situation could get any worse, for once letting his car drive without him so he could think.

It was probably easy to blame his bad attitude on his deficiency or his history. A lot of people blamed their childhood for their shitty actions and dysfunctions, especially people who came from foster-care.

There were a lot of possible causes if he was to go digging for excuses for his behavior.

The first (and only) thanksgiving he spent with Amanda's family came to mind. It was the first time the entire family got to be there together, and it did not go well. _'Supportive family'_ , who was he trying to fool?

Obviously as a kid he didn't notice how it happened, only that eventually the mood had shifted and a fight had broke out. His Grandmother and aunts were giving his mother a hard time and even though he didn't fully understand what they were saying at the time he never forgot it. They were calling her a 'Bed Wench' and accusing the agency she'd used to adopt him of giving her a 'gimpy child'.

His uncle had quickly taken him out of the room and tried to distract him and his cousins with video games but Amanda had came to take him home not long after. She'd smelt furious. More angry than he'd ever smelt anyone before so he left without complaint and kept silent for most of the ride home.

They'd stopped for food at a derelict diner on the way home. Her scent was heavy and dull almost like grief when she finally spoke to him again, running her fingers through his hair. "You are valuable baby, and someone will notice. I promise."

He'd believed her at the time, and he probably did for a while afterwards but he didn't believe it now. Although he couldn't pin point the exact moment when he stopped believing it.

They never visited Amanda's family again after that. His uncle would take him on hunting or fishing trips when Amanda had her ruts but otherwise it was just them. He remembered when he was a teenager and he'd came home to his mother staring into space and letting him know his grandmother died.

They didn't go to the funeral.

Middle school offered another event that could excuse his shitty behavior. Although it was pretty pathetic to still be bothered by things that happened so long ago, as a kid no less. Especially considering it was probably only a big deal to him.

Some beta new guy-Richie Fitzpatrick moved into the area and started attending midway through the year. Richie had gone out of his way to cozy up to him, both of them had been outcasts after all.

He'd been the closest he'd had to a friend outside of North and some people on the internet but he found out fairly quickly that Richie had ran to the popular guys and told them everything about him. Everything from stuff as trivial as his hobbies and interests to the girls he liked.

He got mocked and ridiculed so badly he dropped most of his hobbies after that and changed his phone number since he kept getting crank calls. But he'd learned an important lesson; beta's are just as brutally ambitious as any alpha.

Ever since then he'd been a lot more cautious around people who seemed 'too nice', not wanting to get caught out like that again.

Once he was finished school and in the 'real world', people as a general rule were a lot more agreeable than they were in high school but it seemed the damage was already done. He didn't trust people.

It got him pretty far in his career but his personal life seemed to suffer from it more than anything else. Especially when people found out what he did for a living, everyone seemed to assume he was probing for information or detached and uninterested, only putting on an act so even his attempts to be friendly came off as staged and false.

It probably would seem like it too with his constant need to monitor his posture and mannerisms to make sure he wasn't rubbing anyone the wrong way thanks to his lack of scent leaving people unsure of his true intentions...

Rationally he knew he couldn't hold onto some event from middle school for the rest of his life and he'd tried to work past it but every time he had tried to put himself out there it blew up in his face.

Even his attempt to reconnect with Traci was an abject failure.

He'd found her social media but felt it was too strange to just contact an ex-girlfriend out of the blue especially considering they didn't end on the smoothest terms despite halfheartedly assuring each other they did.

It was pitiful and toxic but he'd stalked through her profile until he found an image of her and some alpha with a kid.

That put an end to his cyber-stalking pretty quickly.

He didn't know why he felt so resentful about it, would he really rather know Traci would prefer to be a lonely spinster than be with him? He should feel happy for her, she deserved a loving family...

She didn't do anything to earn that awful spiteful feeling in his gut.

He didn't bother getting into contact with her, he was probably just some weird guy she barely remembered dating by now. A funny little story she might tell about this guy she once knew without a scent.

Probably not even that...

Another obvious contender was meeting his biological brothers. That had been... an experience, to put it mildly.

Back when he was still relatively new to being lead negotiator, one of his cases got a ton of media attention thanks to the perpetrator being related to some big time local politician and the department had given him some script to read to the press; teamwork, dedicated officers, the usual stuff.

It had gotten more onto more than just the local news this time though. He didn't really think much of it at the time, for all the media hype it hadn't been a particularity memorable case, spoiled guy took his family hostage and bitched about his mother, no hostages died and none of his team were severely injured so it was an easy one to walk off.

That was until one day he gets a call out of nowhere asking him if he was the negotiator involved in the case. Strange, but probably not dangerous so he'd confirmed his identity only to get asked if he was adopted. He'd hung up after that. Figuring it was some weird prank call or scam only to get a few emails on his personal email and social media messages. He was about to delete them when he noticed the profile picture. "Oh shit!"

So apparently if what they were claiming was true, he had two brothers John and Niles Prescott and they wanted to meet him.

The zeta wasn't sure what to make of that.

Of course as a kid he'd wondered about the people who gave birth to him but he'd always felt ashamed of it, as if just thinking about it somehow meant his mother wasn't enough. The curiosity never fully went away but he'd never actually traced them down. He already knew they signed parental rights away the day after he was born and it was a closed adoption.

They didn't want to find him or vice versa.

That had been a tough pill to swallow. For a while he tried to guess at the reasons, maybe they were incredibly poor and knew they couldn't afford to care for him? Maybe drugs and social services were involved and the people who gave birth to him had little to no say in it? He'd hoped they weren't criminals or at least not violent ones but now out of absolutely nowhere he was finally given the option to find out? It was too big of a decision to just drop on someone like that.

He felt like he was betraying Amanda but he attempted to add them to his socials before he could think better of it. 'Niles' got back to him within the first hour, jumping immediately into it with _'Were you adopted?'_ along with a few photos, one was a screenshot of him during the interview and another one that at first he thought was also him before getting a better look and noticing a few minor differences. _'My brother and I keep getting asked if you're some long lost brother or something.'_

_'Yes.'_ Was all he could think to say in response. _'He does look a lot like me. And I am adopted.'_

They'd arranged a meeting in a fairly popular coffee shop at his request because as weird as it was for him to discover two new siblings, it must be a lot weirder for them, and they didn't even know about his _'unique'_ endotype yet...

He wasn't sure how they'd react to him.

He'd debated wearing a synthetic scent to their meeting before deciding against it, he wouldn't have the trace familial scent marker either way. So, this was bound to be awkward. The zeta only hoped there would be enough people around for them not to take immediate notice- A tall order, especially if they were omegas.

The negotiator had checked their accounts and found out a lot about his biological family, none of it good -At least not for him. All those theories he had rationalizing their abandonment fell at the wayside when he discovered that not only were they not poor or incapable, they were exceptionally wealthy business typhoons. The type of WASPs to go to yacht clubs when they weren't in fancy prep schools or sitting atop ivory towers.

There was absolutely no way they didn't have the money or understanding to raise him themselves, so their real motives to get rid of him seemed clear. He would have been an embarrassment to people like that...

The detective tried to shrug it off and at least greet his younger brothers without any resentment or bitterness, it wasn't their fault after all. (If anything it made him appreciate his mother more).

When the two arrived they looked a lot more composed than they smelt. Guess the ice cold stoic expression ran in the family. Under the rancid stench of nervousness they smelt of black pepper and tarragon- the zeta knew instinctively that they were family, and the guilt of it ate away at him.

They noticed him and approached with remarkable calmness, all things considered. They really were perfectly groomed businessmen. Both thoroughbred alphas. Up close he could finally pick out individual differences in their scent, John smelt faintly more like sweet grass while Niles' scent was vaguely anise-like. By the confusion in the set of their lips he could tell they already noticed something off about him.

Niles took a seat without hesitation as they'd already spoken a number of times and were probably about as comfortable as two strangers could be. "Nice to finally meet in person, Connor." He offered to shake hands.

"Likewise, Niles. You must be John?" He stood to greet the other alpha.

John could almost be his identical twin- It was a torture to know he existed; A better, more complete version of himself with a strong healthy scent and a mate judging by that fruity whiff of apple and vanilla lingering on him.

The alpha seemed to find him just as abhorrent, shaking his hand as he might a lepers before sitting down without any verbal greeting.

It was awkward. Exceptionally awkward.

Niles' essentially ran the room; Informing the zeta about how they'd found out about him, what their parent's had to say for themselves after keeping him a secret (apparently he was going to be named Jacob and as far as the rest of the family knew he was stillborn- Thanks birth parents, lovely cover up), that the both of them were married but Niles' choice of marrying a beta he met in college had gotten him ostracized from the family, his 2 nieces, and what they both did for a living -apparently John taken over the family business, Niles' himself had actually also gone into law enforcement funnily enough.

Telling them about himself had been embarrassing, mentioning his mother had gotten him a strange look from his brothers, talking about going to public school and not getting into college earned a frown, and talking about his job lead to John interrupting to finally ask the question that must have been on their mind since they first sat down.

Explaining what a zeta was had put a stop to the entire meeting. Both alpha's were uncomfortable, he could smell as much, and John had left immediately to "get his girls tested" despite the zeta's assurance that it's from birth, not something that develops over time.

Niles at least seemed interested in staying in touch, he was a bit uneasy around him but he could solider through it like a champ. As they were both cops they at least had a bit more to talk about, and Niles was more than willing to admit his exile from the WASP's nest and social stigma he got for marrying a beta had made him a more open minded person.

They'd traded numbers and made vague invitations for fishing trips in the Minnesota town Niles now resided in and thanksgivings.

He never heard from John again. When he checked, he'd been removed from his friends list and blocked.

At least Niles and his wife were actually very nice people, but he still never saw much of them. Again, he just never instigated any outings but at least once or twice a year Niles would reach out.

The zeta just didn't think to ask, he figured it would only bother the alpha.

Huh, the more Connor thought about it the more it did seem to be solely his fault.

Maybe it was time to finally accept that.

ζ

Work was awkward, the Lieutenant was pointedly ignoring him, frustration still marring his usual campfire scent to a musty arid stench.

He should've just turned back and apologized.

Could he even apologize now or was it ruined? He'd been a complete dick because of some insecurities getting in the way of logic but how could he explain that to someone like Anderson? An alpha who took for granted everything he lacked?

"I..." He glanced at the lieutenant, they made eye contact for a split second before both looking back to their terminals. He cleared his throat and tried again. "I'm going to lunch..." He side eyed the older man.

The alpha huffed, tense and stubbornly staring at his monitor.

"At Chicken Feed. I'm going to order one of those burgers that make me queasy with a side of fries and barque sauce..." He continued, staring back at his own monitor. "I'll... I'll be at our usual table."

He heard the alpha move but he didn't try to catch him this time. He powered his desktop down before getting up to go. He figured the ball was in Hank's court now, if he wanted to hear him out he'd come and if not... Well, at least he wouldn't have to eat any of these god awful burgers again.

Before the zeta could even make his way out the door the lieutenant pushed past him. "You're buying." He grumbled.

They ended up driving there in the alpha's car and eating in silence for most of the meal before speaking at once;

"I thought you were going to apologize-"

"I'm sorry-"

They paused again for a moment.

"I'm sorry." The detective repeated. "I... I'm just not a good person. I'm sure you're not surprised." He scoffed at his own tactless comment, "Not that it's an excuse or anything. I don't even know what's wrong with me anymore, I just... I don't believe you or anyone else out there could want anything to do with me without any ulterior motive. It was my job to lie to people all day everyday for 10 years, I just see it everywhere I go now. I don't even think I can stop it."

Hank frowned, looking him up and down as if he was expecting some trick. "What exactly makes you think I'm lying then?"

"Because no one is nice, not to me anyway."

"I'm too nice?" The alpha frowned at that, "How's that fair? I was shitty to you when we first met, once I noticed that I didn't like it so I decided to try give you a fair shake. Is it really so impossible in your mind that I might want to change my crap attitude?"

"Why would you?" The zeta countered, "Why for me of all people; Ask anyone who knows me- I'm mean, and bitter, and a failure- I never text or call or even think about anyone else at all. You should know that by now, who stays in a city for 3 years without making a single friend? No one has ever tried to be nice to me without wanting something back in return. I won't take it personally if you do; I'd just rather you fess up now and we can get it over with."

"I don't want anything from you! Jesus Christ, is it really that hard to believe?"

"Yes. I already know what people say about you; 'Anderson can't commit to anything'-"

"Watch it you sonovabitch-" The alpha growled, "You've got some fucking nerve listening to those bastards-"

"I'm not an idiot, I can smell it off you too."

The alpha smelt more hurt and bitter than angry at that... Perhaps he had misunderstood something? "Not that it's any of your damn business, but she left me. This fuckin' job, hours too long, days too stressful... She couldn't take it, so she dipped to go find greener pastures."

"Oh."

"Yeah, _'oh'_."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know..." He felt like a world class jackass now.

"Yeah, well it's not like you asked or I'd go around telling everyone. People just drew their own conclusions."

"Yes, they often do." He swirled the icy dregs of his drink with the straw. "Broken bond syndrome can be fatal, how'd you survive alone?"

The lieutenant heaved out a sigh, "I almost didn't. But we had a son, fighting for custody kept me going through the worst of it."

"I'll bet." Connor nodded along as if that wasn't a huge surprise. He could guess how the custody case went judging by what he knew of the lieutenant's busy schedule. "I don't know if you have any ill intentions, if you truly don't you'd probably be one of the only people I've met who hasn't. But I was trying to say the other night... Well, that was on me. You didn't really do anything, I just..."

"Couldn't see any lies so you figured you were missing something?"

"You don't have to mock me, but yes... I suppose that's pretty accurate. I guess I'm not very fair either." They watched each other keenly. Sizing each other up trying to see where they went from here- if they didn't go their separate ways after this.

The alpha glanced down at the crumbled up remains of his napkins, "These burgers make you queasy?"

Connor nodded, "They have to be the worst burgers in Detroit."

"Oh really?" The alpha smirked, "Why'd you keep eating them then?"

"Because you kept inviting me."

Hank laughed at his answer. "Coulda told me that earlier." He tossed the crumpled up napkin into the nearby trash can. "We'll have to go somewhere else then."

ζ

"Jesus, you're lucky you don't need to worry about these fucking ruts." Hank snarled, stirring his coffee so vigorously he looked like he was going to spill half of it. His smokey scent ablaze thanks to his encroaching rut.

The zeta leaning on the counter next to him shrugged. "It doesn't look fun alright."

"It fuckin isn't... I just want to go home and fight or fuck something."

"They have android's for that-"

"Jesus, I'm not fucking an android! That's the universal sign of being a pathetic fuck and giving up."

"I think you'd better give up already then, you're not getting any younger." Connor taunted as deadpan as possible.

The lieutenant clicked his teeth in warning, "Now isn't the time to joke around like that you fucker."

"Who's joking?" He cracked a smile despite himself at the agitated scent wafting off the alpha. "You should try to find someone if you're not getting an android for it."

"No thanks, I can't stand it- just hearing another heartbeat in the room sets me on edge the entire time. I'd rather do it alone."

It wasn't uncommon for some people who suffered a broken bond to go completely sex negative and refuse to go through heats or ruts with another person- but it wasn't healthy. "You sure? Maybe even just breaking an android might cheer you up a bit?"

"It might, until I get the bill for it."

The zeta shrugged again, sniffing at the coffee. Burnt. He'd wait until later to get some elsewhere then. "If it makes you feel any better I had a girlfriend a couple years back, the only time I ever tried to spend someone's heat with them. She said it was like having sex with a ghost-"

Hank snorted, clapping him on the shoulder. "It takes a big man to admit he's small-"

"Oh fuck off. That's the one area I'm not deficient in if you must know." He hissed, "My point was, you've got a strong scent, take advantage of it before you lose it." The detective couldn't help but think how easy it would be to find someone with the lieutenant's scent alone. It was damn near criminal to watch him waste it.

"Ha no way, Zeta's have knots?"

"No, not unless they're genetically inclined towards alpha's. Which I am so..."

Anderson just shook his head at that, "Your body just freaks me out more, the more I learn about it."

"Everything about you freaks me out. Those ugly shirts in particular."

"Oh so you're just a slave to fashion with all your dark blues and greys?"

"Yes precisely, you don't know my struggle."

"Ah shut up, I'm pissed enough without you sassing me today." he grouched, scratching at his swollen glands with a hiss.

"When does your leave start?" Connor asked, trying to get a proper scent off the older man without him noticing-Alpha's were always especially touchy about people sniffing around them close to their ruts or their mates heat.

"Two days." He growled before perking up, panic souring his scent. "Don't tell me I'm not going to make it?"

The zeta took the invitation to lean in for a closer whiff. "It's gonna be close alright..."

"Shit, I thought so." He took a sip of coffee before letting out a displeased grunt.

"I can cover you if you need to head home early." He offered, "Pity you'll miss the start of the season."

"Ugh, don't remind me. I'd rather miss some basketball games than miss this summer."

The zeta nodded along, his partner had mentioned a few times by now that he was getting his son for the whole summer this year. "Silver linings, eh?" He checked his smart watch, "C'mon, we're needed on scene."

"Oh you're joking, another new case?"

"Crime doesn't sleep."

"I'll ring this fuckers neck when I get my hands on him." The alpha snarled, tossing out his coffee. "Can't have shit in this damn job."

The detective rolled his eyes, following the irritable alpha out.

They'd only just peeled out when the alpha spoke up again, "I'm probably still good to watch the play offs tomorrow... You know, if you want to risk it?"

He shot the older man a look, "No way in hell am I risking going into your territory when you're like this."

"I doubt I'd attack you, you don't smell like anything." The alpha huffed, offended by the implication.

"I didn't get this far by taking unnecessary chances... We can watch at my place."

The alpha raised a brow in surprise at the offer, "Sounds like a plan. You sure your mutts won't get agitated?"

"Jack might. But they're all crate trained and I have a yard, I'm sure they'll be fine."

"If you're sure."

The zeta nodded, making a mental note to stock up on odor eliminators for when the alpha left. God knows he'd stink the house out. Probably put him in a bad mood for the week too.

As a general rule the zeta kept a clean orderly home; environmental scents clung to him too and he'd much rather smell like dogs and a soap than dust and filth. So he didn't have much prep work to do for the alpha's visit. He'd contemplated setting out some pineapple candle or something similar to the usual scents Anderson seemed comfortable around to set him at ease but ultimately decided against it- if it stoked the alpha's instincts too much it could make him territorial so he'd have to just man up and suffer some discomfort of unfamiliar smells in the zeta's home.

Pretty cold considering the lieutenant was already close to his most vulnerable state, but that's his problem. He'd probably stink up the room soon enough anyway.

The detective's watch chirped out a text notification, apparently the alpha was outside. "Coming." He called, giving the room one final visual sweep before moving to open the door for him. The lieutenant had gone home to take care of his dog before swinging back, once the door was opened to him he hesitantly entered, scanning the room as if something was going to jump out at him. Jittery and on edge. "Make yourself at home, I've got the game taping as we speak."

"Yeah, sure." He checked the room over once more before moving to sit shifting around so he had his back to the wall.

Connor remembered when his mother would get like this, having to go room to room checking and double checking everything, fussing over him and growling at anything out of place. Maybe now wasn't the right time to invite his partner around for the first time...

"I can give you a tour if you want?" He offered, he'd gotten used to Hank's scent by now but an alpha approaching rut was still uncomfortable enough without the stress on an unknown environment making it worse.

The older man frowned, "Is that your roundabout way of indulging my annoying instincts?"

He shrugged as casually as possible, "My mother always had to do her little patrol ritual when she was getting close to her rut, just don't go digging through my stuff."

He seemed to think it over for a moment before biology won out, "Fuck, fine fine... " He growled. "Lead the way."

"Oh, okay." He blinked, he had half expected the alpha to just go himself- Maybe he wanted to keep an eye on him too? "I've got the same basic layout as your place; One bedroom, one bathroom, kitchen and storage room. I just use the storage room for the dogs but they're outside right now. I probably won't let Jack back in while you're here. He's a Malinois- you know how they are."

"I never worked with K9's, but I've seen them in action. Crazy fur missiles."

"Yeah, age hasn't slowed him down either. But he keeps me fit I guess." He opened the door to his bathroom, letting the alpha snoop in, checking behind the shower curtain and door.

"Jesus, you got a lot of pills."

"They're vitamins, I told you I gotta watch my hormone levels." Not an easy task when he had no scent of his own to alert him to any dips or fluctuations.

"Ah yeah I remember... Sucks you can't drink then."

"I can, it just really throws me outta whack for a while. So it's not advised, but I make exceptions every so often. "

"Oh really, like what?"

"Special occasions; Eli's stag party, an old friend coming to town, fishing trips..." He listed absentmindedly as the Alpha moved ahead to check out the next room. "I usually just put on some testosterone cream before and afterwards to even myself back out as much as possible."

"Eli?"

"As in Elijah."

The lieutenant scoffed, "You still trying to tell me you know _the_ Elijah Kamski?"

"I have proof if you still don't believe me." He offered,

The alpha shook his head, turning back to face him arms crossed, "Fine I'll bite. Go ahead and prove it." He looked smug, as if he was certain he'd finally called him on his bluff.

"Wait here," The zeta shot back, heading into his bedroom to grab his tablet before bringing it out and unlocking it, scrolling though his admittedly small list of friends to select the older zeta. It only took him a moment to find the video of the bachelor party. "Here, keep in mind this was the end of the night. I'm not that much of a lightweight-We'd just been out all day."

The video was recorded by some guy Elijah had gone to college with, he'd been running around recording and snapping pictures of everyone the whole night. It had been a pain to keep avoiding him the whole night but honestly it was nice to have the mementos so perhaps he had the right idea all along. Unfortunately thanks to his unwillingness to be on camera the only images or videos they had of him was when he'd been too plastered to care anymore, which wasn't a good look.

He was mid drink, half slumped over the table arguing with the man himself when the cameraman got his attention and both of them suddenly dropped whatever they'd been arguing about and shifted in to pose, making some pretty rude gestures and giggling like schoolboys. "It's a video," A voice off screen informed them and they burst out laughing even harder and hurling insults at the beta recording them.

He'd made a half-assed uncoordinated attempt to slick back his tussled hair as Kamski recovered quickly and threw an arm over him, giving his usual on brand overly dramatic speech about brotherhood and the nature of companionship that made about as much sense sober as it had when they were both completely pickled.(Which was none at all)

"No fucking way.." Hank gaped, "How the hell did you even meet someone like him?"

"I told you, we met as kids at the clinic."

"Clinic?"

"Oh, he's a zeta too."

The lieutenant was speechless, "No fucking way. How did I never hear about that?"

"He doesn't like to talk about it in interviews, and I doubt anyone would believe it. Everyone seems to think he's some super genius alpha or beta." He shrugged, "They're not wrong about the genius part at least."

"Fuckin' hell... So you could get a free android if you wanted?"

The zeta laughed aloud at that, "No, absolutely not. Eli is nice, but he's not that nice. It'd take something outstanding for him to give away an android for free."

"Well shit, guess I owe you an apology. I really thought you were full of it."

He shrugged it off, "I would too in your place." He had to block the door way to his bedroom when the alpha moved to enter. "I'd prefer if you didn't."

The alpha growled but shook it off reluctantly moving to go check the other rooms again before coming back out, slightly more at ease at least.

"You ready to watch the play offs now?"

The lieutenant nodded, moving to pick the same seat he'd chosen earlier. "You don't happen to have any beer do you?" He chanced

"That's probably not a good idea for you right now-"

"Are you fucking-!" He snapped before getting control of himself, "Fine..."

The zeta just started up the game and sat back to watch with his colleague. It wasn't long before he noticed that yes the Lieutenant's smoky musk was beginning to permeate his house, and strangely enough it made the game a lot more enjoyable.

Something about the spicy scent spiking at every tense moment in the game amped him up as well. The highs of the game seemed higher, the lows far more rage inducing. By the middle of the game they'd ended up jumping around cheering and booing together as if it was the Superbowl.

Hell, ruts might not be so bad if they fun moments like this.

By the end of the game the Pistons had won and the alpha had yanked his partner up, giving the younger man a shake. "Fuck yeah!" He laughed, ruffling his hair "About damn time we won one for a change, huh?"

Connor was a bit taken aback at the overly familiar gesture but he didn't comment on it. "Damn right." He chuckled, giving the alpha an awkward pat on the shoulder.

His partner was still caught up in the revelry, tugging him into a quick hug before talking statics and projections for how it'd go from here. They'd ended up debating possible outcomes for close to an hour before his dogs finally started scratching at the door and howling to get back in. The alpha checked the time and jumped up "Oh shit, I probably should get going."

The zeta checked the time with a wince too, unlike his partner he had work tomorrow morning... God that was going to be another sleep deprived day by the looks of things. He let out a groan at the concept. "Yeah you probably should, enjoy your _thing_.. You know, if you can."

Anderson gave a humorless laugh, "Oh I'm sure it'll be tops." He huffed sarcastically, patting the younger man's back once more before heading out. "I'll see you in a week I guess. Don't go solving everything without me."

"No promises." He winked, walking his partner to the door to see him off. It was weird how handsy the alpha got around his rut, but he could hardly blame him. From what he knew of them it was completely normal for alpha's to get more physical and protective, he should just be glad he didn't get snapped at as much anymore.

He let his pack of dogs back in and Jack damn near boxed him into the corner, smelling the alpha off of him and barking loudly to let his displeasure be known. He had to throw the mutt's favorite squeaky toy to get him to back off. Absolute psychopath took his guard dog job way too seriously.

While the trio where busy sniffing out the curious new scent he took his last chance to feed them and put out some water for them before retiring to his bedroom to try get in as much rest as possible.

The next week should be fairly easy anyway, usually when his partner was on sick leave Fowler was nice enough to put him on unofficial light work, all office stuff or sitting around in a Denny's car park also doing paperwork because the system was annoying like that.

As the detective settled down to sleep he couldn't help but think it strange that today went so smoothly, for some reason he thought it'd be weird or uncomfortable to allow the alpha into his territory. He'd been to the alpha's place enough times by now it was basically a second home and even Anderson himself seemed content to have him there now- He'd thought it would be as awkward as the first time all over again but it really wasn't.

The alpha hadn't even smelt uncomfortable towards the end- Well, okay he smelt uncomfortable to Connor, but content in his own right. As content as any alpha could be while on the pinnacle of their rut.

Briefly he recalled a conversation he'd had with Elijah years ago, Eli had made an off hand remark about being 'friendly, not friends' with this guy at college. He'd asked what the difference was and after a moment the older zeta had responded; "If we were friends it wouldn't be weird for him to just show up at my doorstep and ask to come in. If it is, then we're not friends."

Before he could really dig into that he finally felt the exhaustion of the week catching up with him, the lingering smoky gunpowder and pine musk in the air giving him some vivid dreams of hunting trips.

Ironically it was probably the most peaceful night's sleep he'd had in a while.

The next morning it took an embarrassing amount of time for him to notice something was off after he'd showered and dressed for work. He was almost at the station before he realized that the alpha's scent was still following him, which wouldn't be strange except the alpha hadn't been in his car in weeks and he'd just showered. The zeta pulled over to try pinpoint the scent before it finally clicked.

That son of a bitch had scent marked him!

Oh this was going to make it's rounds in the rumor mill...

No one had scented him since his mother so he had to quickly look up what it meant- His first instinct was to call the other cop up and chew him out for it, but he'd been trying to squash that impulse until he knew whether it was warranted or not nowadays.

Apparently scent marking wasn't just reserved for family and mates, it was a community building measure- A way to distinguish friend from foe.

Oh...

Honestly, he felt a pang of remorse for assuming the worst yet again.

It also made him wonder how many other social rituals he was completely unaware of if he was only finding out now that scent marking wasn't just for family. It was easy to forget he was locked out of a vital method of communication sometimes.

ζ

Waiting around the Manfred clinic he saw the same familiar faces from his youth still sitting around waiting too. If his calculations were correct then there were still only about 20 zeta's in the USA (possibly the whole of North America since the clinic was the only one of it's kind on the Continent). He and North were still some of the youngest, thankfully there weren't many younger zetas but the few times he saw them it always left a bad taste in his mouth.

To his surprise however, North herself appeared pulling him into a hug. "Connie, it's been ages!"

The detective had been more than happy to return the greeting, "Too long, I'm sorry-I meant to call but work just keeps piling up you know?" He pulled back to check her over, she had yet another new hair color- It seemed like she did every time he saw her since they were teenagers. "How've you been?"

"Oh man," She laughed, running a hand through her hair, "How much time you got?"

He made a show of checking his watch before grinning at her, "For you? I've got all day. This is my weekend," He gestured around the office waiting room.

North rolled her eyes, "You're such a dork even now. When's your appointment we can go get coffee afterwards?"

"Should have been ten minutes ago. Carl likes to talk."

"Ugh, tell me about it. I'll wait for you." She offered.

"Sounds good, hope you brought a long book with you."

The pseudo-omega gave him a light shove, "You think I don't know to do that by now? What do you take me for?"

The checkup didn't take long and he got the usual advice and prescription; _'You're in good health, but remember to keep an eye on your hormone levels.'_

It really was annoying to have to come up just to hear the same thing twice a year every year. At least he'd ran into North this time.

She'd lead him to a nearby cafe, a bit overpriced but it sold the gimmicky bubble teas North was so in love with. "So how's work been?"

"Same shit, different day." He shrugged, North was a bit of a true crime fan girl but he wasn't about to go discussing cases in public, "What about you? Did you finally get passed that dry spell?"

"Well not quite, but I've got pretty big news..." She trailed off, biting her lip.

Connor raised a brow, "Don't keep me in suspense then, what's going on?"

The female zeta chewed on her straw, looking a bit flustered, "I'm getting married."

He blinked at the information, although he probably shouldn't be surprised- She was North Cunningham afterall, poster girl of so many different brands he couldn't even afford to look twice at. "Wow, Congratulations." He raised his cup for a toast, "I'm really happy for you." Despite the slight bitterness he truly was happy for her, "Who's the lucky man? -Or woman?"

"Oh C'mon, I only dated another girl once. You're worse than my mother." She shook her head slowly, raising her plastic cup to toast with him. She brushed some of her hair out of her face, "Actually I think you already know him."

"Really?" Well that got his attention, he quickly tried to think of everyone he and North had in common.

"Yeah I think you've met Markus before?"

"Markus?" He tried to place the name, it was vaguely familiar...

"He's Carl's son, the adopted one."

"Oh, oh yes right I remember him now." They'd met in passing mostly, Carl and his mother thought they might get along, probably under the assumption that they were both adopted by single parents from a different race so they must have something in common but in reality it didn't turn out that way. Other than that one thing they didn't have much to talk about, Markus loved art, He loved science. Neither cared much about what the other had to say. Connor couldn't tell the difference between Monet and Mozart; while Markus didn't know or care to know the difference between a cyclohexane and a cyclopentene. They were like chalk and cheese, but they did acknowledge each other if they crossed paths.

He wondered what North saw in him? Acceptance probably, Markus was an alpha but thanks to his father he was used to zeta's and didn't seem uncomfortable around them. "How'd that happen?"

She shrugged, "It just kinda did?" She tapped the edge of her cup before letting out a nervous laugh, "Okay well not quite that suddenly. I knew he had a crush on me when we were 16, I just didn't think he was serious and I liked someone else..." She looked out the window, watching the traffic passing by. "We ran into each other again recently and I guess I finally figured out what was waiting in front of me all along. Time to stop chasing guys who never looked twice you know?"

Connor nodded, although he didn't know what idiot out there wouldn't want North. "Yeah probably for the best, you and Markus like the same shit music anyway."

The female zeta drummed her long nails against the edge of the table. "Yeah, he's really sweet and understanding... He's got a daughter you know? She's a cute kid, has the biggest brown eyes." She smiled fondly just mentioning it. "We're thinking of a winter wedding, cheaper and prettier you know?"

"Are you going to wear white?"

"I don't know, maybe."

"Liar."

"Oh fuck you. God and our friends and relatives don't need to know what I got up to."

"I'm pretty sure they all already know."

"What about you?" She asked, watching him like a cat ready to pounce. "Any new sweetheart?"

"What me? No of course not, don't be stupid." He shook his head, almost laughing her question off. "I doubt I'll be needing any plus ones-"

"Really?" The model sighed, "I think you just don't put yourself out there enough."

"That's easy for you to say, Ms America." He didn't want to get bogged down with this, not when North had such good news.

She huffed, "Actually, I suppose pig-headed ignorance is your biggest problem."

"Hey what's that supposed to mean?"

"You really are dense for someone so smart..." She pushed away her empty cup, "You really didn't notice I liked you, did you?"

"...Come again?"

She let out a small bitter laugh, "Yeah, I figured... You know, I heard about your mother from Elijah. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I... I didn't even tell Eli." How the hell did he find out?

"Why not? I would've come to help you, you know?" She traced an old stain in the table. "After I found out I tried to call you but you never returned my calls."

Connor, suitability shell shocked by the turn this conversation had taken, was unable to give any explanation.

"Yeah well... I guess it was a wake up call, took me long enough to figure it out I suppose." She smirked sadly "You know you were the first person to tell me I was pretty. Outside of my family anyway. I used to look forward to running into you here more than anything...So, still think I should marry Markus?" She asked giving him a meaningful look.

The detective had to laugh at himself for never noticing, it was pretty obvious now that it'd been pointed out to him... It was tempting, so tempting to tug at the string she was offering him. "Markus always had better taste than me... I'm happy for you two."

He was a bastard, but not that much of a bastard.

North looked out the window again, squeezing her delicate hands into tight fits. "Why did you never notice me?"

He cast his eyes down to his rapidly cooling coffee. "I guess I'm a hypocrite... I'm sorry."

She nodded somberly, picking up her bag. "You needed a friend more huh?" the zeta dug around in her bag for a moment before taking out two sample invitations. "Which one? Gold leaf or feather waltz?"

He pointed to the fresh green feather waltz feeling numb.

"God, this would have been a lot easier with you..." She remarked, he wasn't sure if she was joking or not. She probably wasn't sure either. She handed the invite over. "You can come, it probably won't be for another year or two at the rate things are going..."

He nodded and they lapsed into silence for a while, staring out the window together for a while before North stood up.

"I gotta get going... I'll see you around, right?" She asked dubiously.

The detective finally glanced back at her and gave her an unconvincing nod, "Yeah, of course."

She hesitated for a moment before leaning down to give him a kiss on the cheek. Up close he could smell Markus off her; Charcoal, cloves and spicy warm sand... "I'm sorry about your mother..." She murmured, turning to leave without another word.

"Thanks..." Connor stared down into the by now room temperature coffee slowly staining the inside of the cup for a while before downing it.

He should get home. He could lament his life choices later...

ζ

"Here's a good place." The zeta mentioned, pausing to scent the air once more while the alpha caught up to him.

"You been here before?" Anderson gestured towards the quaint back street cafe.

"No, but the coffee smells nice. Much better than the slog in the breakroom, I've smelt it a few times while we were passing by."

The alpha stepped forward to try sniff out any noticeable difference, "I dunno, smells like any old coffee to me."

"You really can't tell the difference?" The younger detective asked curiously.

His partner shrugged, "Should I?"

"The smell is warmer, for lack of a better word. It has more body-"

"What, it's made with love?" Lieutenant Anderson joked, nudging him playfully.

"No, it's made with the same amount of indifference as every other coffee out there. But at least it's made with competent indifference." He opened the door, gesturing for the alpha to go ahead.

The older cop rolled his eyes, heading in. "I hope it sucks just so I rub your nose in it for the rest of your career." He shuffled in to find a seat near the back of the shop eyeing the various sandwiches and pastries hungrily.

Connor sat across from him, "I'll take my apology in writing when you're inevitably proven wrong."

The young omega barista swung by to take their order's, giving the zeta a strange look before leaving in a hurry. "You ever get used to that?" Anderson asked, sympathy stirring in his woodsy scent.

"People's reactions? Oh yeah, I'm pretty used to it by now. Like I said, omega's are more sensitive to it- Beta's usually don't notice right way if I'm in a packed space." He took a napkin out of the holder so he could start tearing little pieces off it. "Hell even if I did have a scent I'd probably be used to people staring, my mother and I made quite a sight back in the day."

"Heh, I bet... " The alpha trailed off for a moment, scent growing heavy with something, the bitter tinge of worry. "Say uh... Can I ask you a fairly personal question?"

He sat up at attention, "What's wrong?"

"I just wanna know, you didn't have a father right? That didn't... It didn't screw you up right?"

"Oh... " He paused to think about it, "You're wrong, I did have a father-I just didn't know him. Technically I had two I suppose."

"What?" Hank frowned, "The fuck does that mean?"

"Well, obviously I have a biological father. Don't really care who he is, but my mother had a mate. They were both trying to adopt me but unfortunately he died when I was too young to really remember him. Mugging gone wrong, my mother raised me alone after that."

"Oh." He blinked, "I didn't know that..."

"Yeah, my mother didn't talk about him much. He was an omega who taught philosophy at the same university as her." He chuckled to himself, "How unlucky am I? Two fathers and I don't know either of them."

The alpha let out a strained laugh with him. "What's with that? Your _mother_ was an alpha and your _father_ was an omega?"

"I guess it's what they agreed upon? I know it's not really traditional, but if they cared about that they probably wouldn't have adopted me in the first place." He put the napkin aside for a moment, "Why are you asking?"

He sighed, glancing at the server to make sure they wouldn't be overheard. "My son's an alpha, but his scent's been getting kinda weak lately. His mother's trying to remarry and I don't know if he's taking it well..."

Connor hung his head for a moment, trying to figure out how to lay down some pretty harsh truths without freaking the alpha out. "... You know what makes smell so important? It's the only sense we have that doesn't pass through the thalamus, it goes straight to the brain. The thalamus is what filters outside stimulus when we sleep, it's basically what decides if something is important enough to wake you- It's why say, you won't wake up when a car drives by or there's a small noise but the smell of smoke wakes people during a fire." He tapped at his temple, "Scent travels right into your head towards the amygdala and hippocampus creating strong emotional responses and roots memories into place. If your son is being raised around another alpha, they're not going to get along. He doesn't smell like that guys kid and that guy doesn't smell like his dad so they're instinctively going to reject each other and cause conflict. There's a reason I was allowed go to a single alpha, no scent of my own means I'll be camouflaged and accepted easily. I don't doubt that my mother and I got on so well because of that." He glanced away, time for the worst part... "Your son's going to either have to adapt to fit his new parental figures scent markers or he's going to get rejected by the family... I'm sure your ex is doing her best to make sure he's safe but adoption agencies have therapists and a highly monitored sometimes years long process of getting alpha's and omega's adapted to their foster child's scent."

The alpha's scent flared up dramatically the more he talked, the omega barista looked too scared to approach. He covered his face, scratching at his beard before letting out a thunderous growl, "That sonovabitch..."

The detective didn't really know what to say, not in this circumstance... Telling his partner to calm down only ever aggravated him in the past and this was a pretty loaded subject too. It seemed Hank had already given close to full custody to his former mate, he didn't think custody agreements had _'take-backsies'_ clauses. Again he was left wishing he had some way of condoling his partner, a scent that would let him know without making a big deal out of it... "I'm sorry Hank." He took the risk of patting the lieutenant's shoulder in a way he hoped came across as solidarity rather than pity.

His partner glanced at him skeptically before letting out a frustrated hiss, deflating slightly. "I'm getting him all summer in the next few weeks... Maybe he'll want to stay for good?"

"Hopefully he will." The zeta nodded, deciding to just go get their coffee's himself since the omega likely wasn't coming back anytime soon. She didn't look at him as he collected the mugs himself, "What do you have planned for the summer anyway?" He mentioned, trying to get onto a slightly more positive topic.

"I don't know, I was thinking of taking him to Lake Erie. We used to go hiking in Sterling State Park every summer before..."

"You should take him fishing, I used to love fishing trips when I was a kid."

"I think he's a bit too energetic for that... I can never get him to sit still." Hank smirked at the memory. "I might try take him hunting, he's almost old enough now."

"What age is he?"

"Ten. He'll be eleven in a few months."

"I've been hunting since I was seven, he's definitely old enough." He snickered into his coffee, "You're too protective."

"And you wonder why everyone thinks you're a sociopath." The lieutenant rolled his eyes, "He's a sensitive kid, I don't think he'll want to shoot Bambi or his little bunny pals." He shrugged, "Even if he doesn't shoot anything I'm sure he'll enjoy being out in nature, learning how to track stuff."

"Not everyone's able to be a hunter." He agreed, "You'll have to introduce us once I get back."

"Oh yeah I meant to ask, where you vacationing to?"

"Minnesota."

"You really do like fishing huh?"

"Heh, yes but I'm actually visiting family." He stirred his coffee absently, "I've got a younger brother out there, he's been inviting me to go down for a couple of years now and I guess I finally decided to take him up on his offer..."

"You've got a brother?" The alpha frowned, "Like a real brother?"

"Yep. Two younger brothers, they found me years ago. Middle brother got freaked out, haven't seen him since our first meeting. Youngest brother is okay, I just... Well I just never really gave him a chance if I'm being honest. He's kept asking for me to join them for thanksgivings and Christmas' and you know me... I just made excuses."

"Yeah that sounds like you alright... So have you met them? Your real parents?"

"They're not my parents." He hissed defensively, "I know who my mother was, I don't care about who gave birth to me."

"Woah relax, just a question-Jesus." The lieutenant grumbled, surprisingly his scent didn't spike like it would if he was actually offended. "What made you decide to finally grace your little brother with your company?"

"... A few different things." The detective sighed, He was beginning to realize he boxed people out and that maybe, just maybe he might have a bit more worth than he realized. At least to some people out there. "It's only going to be for a week or two. He wanted to have me stay at his place but I managed to find a motel. 3 stars but they allow dogs so it'll do."

Hank didn't question his motives he seemed to just accept it with a nod. "Hope you have fun anyway." He finally took a sip of his coffee, "Fuck, how do you always do this?"

"It good?" He smirked smugly

"Best damn coffee I ever had." The alpha laughed, "You would've been burned as a witch for doing shit like this."

"I'd imagine I would've been even if I couldn't." He shrugged

"Yeah, good point." He seemed to have mostly cheered up anyway. He raised his mug, "Where you going in Minnesota?"

"Ada, small town with close to nothing in it."

"To Ada," He offered a toast,

The zeta rolled his eyes. Briefly he remembered hearing it was bad luck or rude to toast with a half empty cup but he met him half way to clink regardless. "To Erie."

ζ

Finding people to watch Buddy and Scout was the easiest part, everyone in the neighborhood loved them. The local dog walker had been willing to do it for free, which was convenient. He'd dropped them off with their toys and food having to say goodbye for now. Leaving them behind was the worst part of any vacation.

Jack on the other hand... He was definitely the trouble child. Not only was he too much of a handful for even the most experienced of dog owners but he didn't do kennels. The one time he'd tried it he was called up to get him a few hours later as he was tail biting. Lesson learned; Where Connor goes, Jack follows.

Still, driving from Detroit to Ada... Approximately, 957 miles along the I-94... Really testing the poor old boys limits. And his own, trapped in his car for 15 solid hours if he choose to do it in one go.

In the end it wasn't his choice as the Malinois began to pitch a fuss halfway through the car ride.

Fair enough, he'd lasted longer than the zeta had expected him to. He pulled into the nearest town for the both of them to stretch their legs. Couldn't hurt to get some warm food either, having nothing but trail mix all day sucked.

"Blijf," The detective ordered, waiting for the former K9 to relax before he let himself out. He took out the leash, looking around for any diners nearby to see if there was somewhere to grab a bite. "Vooruit." No sooner was the word uttered before Jack was out of the car and halfway across the field like a bullet.

Ah that bastard... He took off after him, hopefully no one was out to get startled by a strange heavily scarred 60 pound maniac dog running around. "Jack!" If red bull was a dog...

He found the mutt sitting under a tree, signalling up into the branches. "What? Found a squirrel? Gotta be quicker if you wanna catch it." He mentioned, snapping his lead on and patting his head.

They went on a 40 minute walk in the local park, Jack seemed to be enjoying all the new sights and scents.

After the walk he went to the nearby diner, leaving his old K9 partner outside.

The zeta felt like everyone was staring at him- Which they probably were. He was a strange man with a strange dog rolling through their town.

All his life he'd heard that small town America was a friendly little safe haven from the apathy of city life, but every time he had to pass through one it'd never been like that. Even as a child his mother despite often times sticking out was treated with much more respect and kindness.

City living suited him just fine, at least people are just rude and ignorant to everyone there.

The detective ordered a 'breakfast roll' -Perhaps a more apt name would be a coronary on whole wheat because it really was exactly what it claimed to be; Bacon, eggs, sausage and ham all crammed into a roll. It was messy as hell so he took it outside to eat in peace without getting gawked at or suffocated with contemptuous scents.

He could just eat it in the car but he decided to soak in as much fresh air as possible before he had to make the next 7-8 hour stretch.

Connor sat on a wall at the park, letting his dog waste some more energy before trying to pile back into his shitty autonomous car. It didn't take long for Jack to get bored and start begging, usually he wouldn't encourage that behavior but then again it was only the two of them... He'd put him though his paces first, "Jackie, Zit." Of course he sat immediately, watching him with his usual stoic alertness. "Af." He dropped to the floor obediently, tail wagging. "Blaffen." The k9 sounded off, making a passerby jump. "Halte." He tossed the old boy a sausage, after he'd lost most of his teeth he'd been careful to only give him soft food so no more bacon unfortunately.

"C'mon, lets get outta here." He suggested, ignoring the few people still watching him suspiciously.

For the rest of the way he mostly amused himself with reading or playing around with Jack, trying to get him to guess which hand had a treat or tug of war. By the time he arrived it was the middle of the night, he never thought he'd be happy to see a musty motel room. He collapsed onto the lumpy mattress, dead to the world.

Breakfast call woke him early the next morning and it was an awkward affair. This place wasn't kidding when it said it was family run. The managers grandmother literally fed him at her own dinner table.

Getting served was always weird and uncomfortable, smelling people's confusion and apprehension towards him while they tried to cater to his whims with a clearly false smile... He'd tried to finish eating quickly, before excusing himself using Jack as a scapegoat.

While out walking a Deputy sheriffs squad car pulled up alongside him. Small town America... What a god awful place- "You're out of your jurisdiction, ain'tcha?"

He froze, looking over at his brother, "Huh, not much gets passed the county sheriff around here does it?"

"Ha, I'd like to say no but honestly Julie called me. Said some city boy rolled in late last night- And funny thing, he looked an awful lot like me." The alpha got out of the car, pulling him into a tight hug. "Pretty easy to guess who it was."

He highly doubted that's how they described him but it didn't matter, he returned the hug hesitantly. "Word travels fast out in the sticks."

Jack pushed between them with a growl, cautious of this stranger.

"It does indeed, but you know we've got a spare room if you want? The offer still stands."

"Might as well stimulate the local economy you know... Besides, I had the dog so,"

"I like dogs," Niles finally stepped back to acknowledge the dog. "He looks like our K9, Aries." He reached out to scratch behind the growling dogs ears. Surprisingly Jack seemed to warm to him pretty quick, moving in to sniff at him.

"He was my K9 for a while, he retired a long time ago."

"Lucky him eh?" Niles joked, "Hey c'mon, I'll bring you for an early lunch. I promised the guys I'd bring you around later too." He opened the door for him, Jack hopped in as eager as ever.

"Uh, I don't know if that's a good idea..."

"Why not? Don't tell me the big shot city cop is afraid to meet some _real_ law men?" He teased, although his scent betrayed the slightest hint of fear.

The zeta let out a weary sigh, he didn't want to let his brother down so soon... "This isn't the 1800's, who's afraid of the cowboy wannabes?" He winked to try let him know it was all in jest, the price of telling a joke as a zeta could be pretty high.

Thankfully the younger alpha seemed to take it in good spirits, "Ha, you mean the hat? God damn I know, only thing it's useful for is keeping the rain off your head. Damn things a hazard more than anything. I never wear it if I don't have to." He got back into the car, radioing in pretty causally-At least by Connor's department standards. Once he got a 'roger that' He started up the car. "So tell me, you still busting gangbangers heads in Detroit or did you get some cushy job there?"

"I guess it has been awhile... I don't do crisis negotiations anymore. I've been working as a detective the last few years."

"No kidding? Good job I suppose, although you really picked one sticky job after another didn't ya?"

"Heh, yeah well it wasn't like I'm not used to doing things the hard way..." Honestly, maybe he was wrong to avoid his brother for so long. Despite his misgivings the deputy seemed perfectly at ease, if not a little bit excited to see him judging by his scent.

"I'll bet, clearly I'm not good at taking the easy way either... Gotta disappoint dad-" He clicked his teeth, "Never mind."

Connor wasn't about to go digging into that, "You still married to Alisa?"

"Of course I am." He said as if it should be a given.

Well, that made Niles the only cop he knew that was still happily married... "Good for you, I don't know how you find the time."

"This isn't Detroit, we get a couple of domestic calls, some narcotics busts and road accidents every week-I can usually still get back home by 6 or 7. It takes a lot outta ya, but I imagine it's not as heavy as city work. Not to toot my own horn or anything but I've helped investigate a few cases in my career too."

"What cases? Missing goats?"

"No," He laughed, "Asshole. They're rare but we do get murders. Norman County isn't some idealistic utopia, although point me somewhere that is."

"It doesn't have to be a utopia if it really does have _'the best fishing spots in the world'_ as you claim."

"You'll see. Me and the boys are going this weekend, Jim knows a place great for muskellunge."

"Oh, starting with the big guy then?"

"If you want we can go looking for some catfish or trout first?"

It had been awhile since he'd got to go fishing but he refused to back down from a challenge in front of an alpha. "Hell no, let's spear us some Muskies."

Niles rolled his eyes, "Oh yeah, Jimmy's gonna like you."

It was hard not to be nervous, Niles had already paraded him around town letting just about everyone know who he was. The Zeta felt like he suddenly had to worry about making a good impression on not only Niles and his wife but also Niles, his wife, his fellow Deputies and the whole community... It was a lot of pressure.

It was strange though, now thanks to Niles' he was getting a much easier time. A parasite needs a host after all... Everyone in the town already knew him (Or so it seemed anyway with all the people stopping to say hi). Maybe it was just that _'Minnesota nice'_ he'd heard so much about...

Yeah... He didn't think he believed that. A few people still smelt anywhere from uncomfortable to afraid when he passed by or went into their store.

As he was passing through the town just sight seeing the small blocky stores and turn of the century little churches littering the picturesque townstead, something caught his eye. It was a small music store with almost no current music in it, but it had something rare; The Yuri Honing and Floris' album _Phase Five_.

He recalled Hank mentioned it in passing a few months ago, he'd lost an auction for it and couldn't find it anywhere. The older alpha had been pretty peeved.

Connor decided to buy it for him, but it was only as he walked back to the motel that it occurred to him he'd just bought a gift for his co-worker... Was that something normal people did? How was he supposed to explain away buying the lieutenant something he'd only mentioned in a single conversation ages ago without it being a big deal or giving the wrong impression? "Shit..."

He left the album at the bottom of his suitcase, unsure what to do with it. He could just find an excuse, Hank's birthday was in September right? A few months away but he could wait... Maybe steer their conversations back onto the topic of jazz so he might mention the album more and it'd be a little less weird. It might not be the right album either, that'd be less awkward.

"You know your lieutenant's birthday but not your own so-called brother's" A traitorous voice in the back of his mind accused.

He let out a growl, flopping onto the dusty mattress. He felt like a con man... Playing brother's with a man who was a stranger in every way that matters. A real brother would probably know more about his younger sibling. What was he playing at?

Sure it might not be his fault entirely that he didn't know anything about his brothers-It was the people who gave birth to him only to abandon him.

... Then again, wasn't it his fault they ditched him? If he'd been a normal alpha or even a beta they probably would've kept him.

Before he could stew in those thoughts Alisa called him up to invite him over for dinner. He accepted, thankful his stupid insecurities forced him to return to the motel without getting dinner while he was out.

Alisa was a very sweet woman, she smelt of fresh print and rain with a subtle hint of fennel and nuts. What part of her scent was her own and what was Niles' was hard to distinguish even for him. So his brother wasn't lying, they really were still on good terms...

"Niles is running a bit late," The blonde told him, English wasn't her first language but you wouldn't have guessed it. "We can go ahead without him." She sat him down and brought both of their meals to him. He felt like a kid again, it was hard to believe she wasn't an omega, if not for the smell he really would have thought so. "You're not married?" She asked,

"Oh no, not so lucky I'm afraid." He pushed around the meal before him absently, "There was someone once, but... You know how it is. Unsociable hours and I'm not really able to appreciate what I have 'til it's gone."

"Oh that's a shame." She looked him up and down, "You know, Niles' really appreciated you agreeing to come around this time. I know the job is time consuming but he was beginning to think you didn't actually want to have anything to do with him."

"I'm sensing you have something to say about that..." The detective mentioned, watching the rigidness of her posture.

She stared back at him for a moment before explaining, "My husband's family haven't spoken to him in years now. He doesn't say anything but I know it hurts him to not hear from them every birthday. If you're only here running from something or to test the waters, I'd rather you just leave before you hurt him."

He let out a humorless laugh, "I probably deserved that... I don't know why it took me so long but I do want to get to know him. I just thought he'd be uncomfortable around me, and I suppose I'd rather not give him the chance to reject me. At least that was my thinking, but like you said- he kept at me and I guess I finally realized how ignorant I was being." He glanced back at the food, "I don't want to overstay my welcome by sticking around too much, and I don't want to ruin his reputation around town by freaking out his friends..."

The beta sighed softly, "Quit your crying, my husband made his own reputation here. Neither you nor anyone else could ruin it. If anything you might take some heat off us, no more questions about why he married a beta, more questions about the scentless stranger."

"Happy to help, I guess?"

By the time the fishing trip had came around Connor had finally surrendered to the notion he'd have to meet all of Niles friends... Maybe he should have bit the bullet and met a few of them separately? He always was better one on one, too many scents threw him out of whack.

Although he was never really good at socializing outside the scope of his job... Causal encounters were far too volatile. To easy to mess up. No clear rules or guidelines...

"We're gonna be on Micah's boat, he's a funny guy. I'm sure you'll like him." Niles mentioned causally, or it would be causal if anxiety wasn't weighing down his scent and flashing in his grey eyes.

"Okay." He silently berated himself, he wasn't doing enough to settle the alpha. "I like jokes, I'm sure I will."

Niles nodded, still fidgeting- drumming his fingers off the wheel. He pulled up at the pier, "We're here. It's the green boat down the end there." He pointed the vessel out.

Connor could already see several guys waiting around... He nodded, psyching himself up; Friendly, polite and enthusiastic- but not overly so. Positives to distract from the inescapable negative.

He followed his brother up to the Deputies. They welcomed the alpha warmly, "There you are Nidge, fashionably late as usual." A much older beta teased jovially, slapping the young alpha's back.

"Ah you know how it is, the wife nagging me not to stay out all weekend." He laughed before waving the older zeta over, "By the way fellas, this is that brother I was telling you about-"

"The real son of a bitch one?" A female alpha asked curiously,

"The other one I hope." Connor shot his brother a glance.

"Why would I bring that asshole here?" The alpha scoffed, "This is Connor, he's a detective in Michigan."

"Well, in that case it's a pleasure. I was your brother's FTO. You can call me Jim, Jim Corrigan." The old beta reached out to shake his hand, "You gotta tell us about all the embarrassing stuff Nidge did growing up."

"Ahh... Yeah." The detective shook his hand, not sure how to get away from that topic quick enough.

Even Niles seemed to choke for a moment too.

"I didn't really grow up with Niles..." He mentioned and suddenly the entire group seemed tense.

"Oh I'm sorry," The beta coughed, shifting in place restlessly.

Thankfully another beta in the ensemble soldiered on passed it, "Well c'mon, we aren't going to catch anything here." It seemed to break the tension at least among the deputies as they all piled onto the boat eagerly.

The brothers hung back a moment. "Why's he calling you Nidge?" He asked.

"Cause my name was Nigel- I know; _Jeez, Thanks mom_... I changed it in College." He muttered, running a hand through his hair.

He and Niles shared a look and came to an unspoken agreement they could talk about the elephant in the room later now that it'd finally been called out.

The zeta felt out of place on the boat for only a moment before the tension breaking beta- Deputy Micah Kvidt apparently- introduced himself, handing over a rod and some banter. "Here ya go, blue."

"Blue?"

"Yeah, you're some police detective right? The boys in blue. You know what they say about police right?"

"What?" He didn't think a deputy would be calling him a pig, but there was definitely a punchline in there somewhere.

"Police are police, but deputies are the law." He teased.

"Heh, oh really?"

"Damn straight," The beta winked, "You even know how to catch a muskie?"

"Can't be that hard." He shrugged, he might be a bit rusty but he knew how to fish. Surely it wasn't that different?

"Oh boy, famous last words." The deputy poked fun before returning to his position at the head of the boat.

Niles approached him soon after. It wasn't like they had room to avoid each other anyways, "You doing okay?"

"Course." The zeta nodded, picking at the extra strong fishing line for something to do.

The alpha stayed next to him, both sitting in silence for a while as they cast off.

"Your friend called me blue." He scoffed after a while, "Never got a nickname before."

Niles let out an airy laugh, "Yeah, the boys like their nicknames."

"Shouldn't you be blue? Sure, I'm a cop but you're the one with blue eyes."

"Hell no, be glad you got mom's eyes- You coulda been stuck looking like our old man... Eh, My old man..." He corrected himself, suddenly the atmosphere felt real delicate again. "Ah, Damn it..."

They lapsed back into silence.

He could still smell it in the air, even with the overpowering scent of the river. Mildly spicy black pepper, tarragon, a vague hint of anise and fennel. _Family._

Too bad he couldn't offer it back...

Despite the incredibly tense start once the pike where biting the mood dramatically improved, hard to stay all wistful and mopey when a 40 pound demon fish with big sharp teeth was knocking against the hull, slashing water everywhere and rocking the boat.

They clipped it's tags and took a few photos. The damn thing was bigger than Jack- toothier too.

It was pretty fun after that.

The deputies were all nice enough, he didn't manage to catch any muskies but he got a pretty big catfish and a brown trout, nothing you'd write home about exactly but at least he proved he wasn't completely green.

Niles managed to reel in a strugeon- but he had to release it back out, Deputy Kvidt's caught a few catfish himself and almost managed to reel in something big but it got away. Ever the sympathetic lot the other's laughed at his misfortune. Karma caught up soon after as Deputy sheriff Corrigan's line snapped mid way through the day and since he didn't have any replacement he just started drinking and backseat angling the other deputies and the Zeta.

The female Alpha- Terri according to the other deputies, didn't manage to get anything. Her frustration burnt his noise, he was surprised no one else seemed bothered by it.

As the evening approached they ended up at the younger beta's house and Connor began wondering why he hadn't tried to get into the sheriff's office- These guys were a lot more relaxed and fun than any department he'd ever been in. Lucky bastard's didn't even get as much shit as police, maybe they really were _'The Law'_... They definitely had more respect from their public.

After a few drinks someone thought it'd be a good idea to have an endurance challenge- Police vs Deputies; Which one can get a face full of Oleoresin Capsicum-Or pepper spray and still chug a beer?

A more sober Connor probably wouldn't have indulged this idiocy, but Connor plus 12 (Or maybe more, who's counting) beers? He'd reacted to the challenge with the alpha bravado he usually tried to suppress. Niles 'bravely' stood up to represent his department.

"You're screwed, _Nigel_. This will be a cake walk for me." The detective boasted, if he could withstand it in training along with those years of synthetic scent sprays this would be an easy win.

"Wanna bet?" The alpha slurred, both getting ready for the world to turn orange.

"Ready? Go!" Terri slid on goggles before giving them each a face full of liquid hell on earth.

The zeta had squeezed his eyes shut but that nasty oc still got into his eyes and nose. He tried to take a breath and it scalded all down his throat and lungs. He powered through without missing a beat, trying to chug the can- Of course he ended up swallowing a ton of that awful shit along with it.

He could hear Niles struggling next to him under the hysterical laughter of the other deputies calling them crazy.

No sooner had he finished his drink than, his knees almost buckled under the agony of it. "Oh my God!" His voice was hoarse and stratchy thanks to that devil spray. It sobered him up instantly, "Wh-why the hell did we do that? Shit- Shit!" It took every scrap of his rapidly diminishing sense of self control not to try rub his eyes.

"Fuck! Fuck! fuck! fuck!" His brother shrieked from beside him, "Oh mother of God- that stings! We're so fucking stupid!"

It felt like a malicious deity was punishing him for every breath. His lips were burning, and even his snot was spicy as it seemed to all turn to liquid and gush. Peeling his eyes open made it all worse. "We're fuckin' idiots! Oh my G- I hate you so much!" He growled, trying to crawl somewhere with water.

"Gh- Whose idea was this?!" The younger alpha snarled, writhing around on the floor.

The other deputies continued to laugh and tease them even after taking them out into the yard to let them use the garden hose to try rinse the spray off. "Fuck-! Oh Christ- Why is this just making it worse?!" The young alpha howled, coughing and hacking as they fought over the hose.

"Sp-spreading it.. Shit!"

"Fuck me! Why-Why... I wouldn't even do this to bad guys anymore!" Niles hissed, stupidly rubbing at his eyes before letting out a pained roar.

"Agreed." He spat out a mouthful of spicy saliva with a pathetic whimper, "This is some cruel and unusual punishment! God damn it this wasn't worth it!"

In the end they even had to use all of Micah's milk and it still didn't make the pain go away. It dulled it for exactly one second before it came back tenfold.

Safe to say the night ended there for them. Terri had to call Alisa to bring them back to Niles home since they were in no condition to drive, even if they hadn't been drinking. His sister in law wasn't too pleased, even without his sense of smell he could tell. She wasn't exactly trying to hide it, calling them idiots and berating them for their decision making, not acting their age and waking her in the middle of the night to collect them.

Clearly he was still a bit drunk because it didn't occur to him how bad of a first impression that was until much later.

Granted the fiery hell he was going though could be partially to blame for his distraction too.

She tried to take care of them before getting frustrated and leaving them in the living room to take care of themselves and sleep it off. It took close almost two hours for the horrid burning to reduce to a sharp sting- It took even longer for them to finally pass out, the drink and panic finally wearing them down.

The next morning had been fairly uncomfortable. Alisa had made them breakfast and black coffee, before she wasted almost no time in resuming her argument with Niles right in front of him.

The detective busied himself with his food and trying to tear his eyes open properly. Damn OC had crystallized under his eyelids, making every blink feel like dragging broken glass over his eyes. Niles' didn't seem to be in any better condition, eyes bright red and constantly watering still as he tired to explain himself to his wife.

Eventually he excused himself to get cleaned up, leaving them to it. Showering after getting maced was always fun... He had to contort himself to lessen the risk of Satan's sauce drifting south. He was in enough pain without that. He had to bite down on his arm to avoid letting out a yell when the water reactivated the OC.

He was so stupid, now he had a week of eye crystals and painful showers to look forward too...

Oleoresin Capsicum really was the gift that just kept on giving...

Once he was done in the shower Niles stumbled in to use it and he was left alone with the peeved beta again.

"..." He took a seat, tracing over his coffee cup for something to do. "Sorry about last night..."

She huffed, "It's fine, this isn't the first time my husband's maced himself... It's just the first time he did it on purpose."

He couldn't help but let out a laugh at that, he tried to hide it as a cough. "Yeah, mine too. I don't do this for fun usually."

"I wouldn't think so... Honestly, only my husband could leave to go fishing and come back drunk and maced." She cracked a quick smile, amused but trying not to be. "What do you usually do for fun then? Taze yourself?"

The detective did laugh at that, "Among other things." He slicked back his hair, he really was a mess.

She laughed with him, shaking her head "Well I'm glad you had fun."

The day before he had to go back he and Niles had agreed to go fishing together on their own.

They'd gone to the nearby river with Jack, it didn't take long to get set up. While they waited for a bite they chatted, mostly telling each other about funny drunks they'd dealt with while on patrol and amusing calls, keeping things mostly light; Like the local preacher's son getting pulled over and puking into the breathalyzer or the guy who 'totally wasn't hiring a hooker- This was his sister'.

When the malinois came over for attention, the younger alpha paused to give him some love. "What about this guy? Why'd he have to retire?"

"He got stabbed and run over by some scumbag cyborg. Broke a good few of his teeth off too."

"Aw, who's a strong boy?" The alpha cooed, tussling the dog's ears. "I get they're just tools but it really does suck when they get hurt doesn't it?"

"Yeah. He saved my life though... " He nodded, leaning over to scratch under his chin. "They managed to save his leg but his career was over. Ended it with honor anyway, best you can hope for at the end of the day."

The conversation faded out for a while, before the younger alpha finally decided to stop skating around the subject they needed to confront. "You know, dad was disgusted with me when I said I wanted to be a cop... But then you became one too, it's kinda funny isn't it? It's like it's in our blood... Why did you want to become one?" He asked, but his scent betrayed him. It was a covert way to try open up the long overdue conversation.

"... I didn't really have many options, and some cop at a jobs fair told me I had potential. Turns out I was pretty good at negotiation, natural talent I suppose. I figured it would be good for me and I could help people, my mother was always saying compassion was a virtue... She died not too long ago, kinda shook me if I'm honest."

"Oh... I'm sorry." His little brother muttered, threading his fingers through Jack's fur. "You... You know when I was growing up at home I didn't really fit in. Our mother-My mother... She used to tell me I was a disappointment, she'd use you- Or Jake, I suppose... She used the idea of you to guilt me and John... John especially. Any time we messed up or fell short of exceptions we where held up to the impossible standard of what Jakey would have been... It pissed me off to end when we found you. Those sick bastard's tormented us with a lie." He let out a choked laugh, "Kinda funny you're a detective through... Still gotta outdo me."

Connor stared at the river, deep breath- Calm down...

"I wanted to be a cop because I used to run away a lot, and these local cops always had to bring me back. They used to give me candy or toys and I'll never forget it; Mom was giving them abuse for taking so long to find me and this guy, he was a beta I think- He just shut her down. _'This is the 5th time in as many weeks that your son's run off, I don't see how the issue is on our end. Now we gotta get back to work, hope the rest of your day is as pleasant as you are.'_ I'd never seen anyone talk back to her, not even dad could. I think that's the exact moment I wanted to become a cop."

The zeta let out an amused hum. "Guess I was the lucky one after all... "

"Probably... John and me were never all that close but he really turned on me after I met Alisa." He growled under his breath, "Gave me so much shit about marrying a 'foreign whore'. I'm surprised he wanted to meet you, the only time I ever saw him rebel against our parents... Bet his punk ass ran right back to them afterwards. He fucking blocked me not an hour after he left, you know."

"Yeah, me too..."

"Pussy... " The alpha scoffed, "Don't worry, he's a world class asshole you aren't missing much." He glanced at his older brother, the stranger he was finally acknowledging as such. "It might have been easier if you'd been around. Coulda been less alone back then... Did you have any brothers or sisters?"

"No, my mother only really had the time for me. I had a few friends but that was it."

"Really? I didn't, not until college anyway. I was one of those asshole frat guys... Don't know how I managed to catch Al's attention, I was so awkward." He chuckled to himself, "Who were your friends?"

"Some other people like me mostly," He smirked to himself, "Elijah Kamksi too."

"No fucking way really?" The alpha perked up, of course he'd know who was the richest man in the country. "Wish we could've rubbed dad's face in that..."

"There was this girl too... I fumbled that one pretty bad."

"You got a picture of her?" The alpha asked shifting closer, giving up the pretense of fishing altogether.

"Yeah somewhere.." He dug out his phone, noticing a missed call from his department. Unusual but he ignored it, not going to cut his trip short. Almost 15 years and this was only his second vacation, damn it! He found a picture of North and him, ignoring the ache in his chest as he handed the phone over.

Niles examined the screen. "Oh man, you fucked up there..."

"Yeah, I know." He took the device back, "When's your birthday?"

"November 1st. You're August 14th right?"

"Yes, how'd you-Oh right..." He trailed off. "Jacob Prescott, huh?... Sounds like a stranger."

"Connor suits you better. Your mother had good taste."

It was the nurse that named him, but he decided not to mention that. "Be honest, was it disappointing to finally meet me?"

Niles took almost no time to answer, "No. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting, but not disappointing... You know, me an Alisa have been trying to have a baby for the last couple years. I'll admit I was a bit scared at first that they might be you know... all _Jean-Baptiste Grenouille._ "

He groaned at the reference.

"But it probably wouldn't be that bad even if they were, you did pretty well for yourself and you seem nice and normal enough after you get used to it."

"I hope you don't... For the kids' sake." Honestly the odds were in the young alpha's favor, zeta's were a recessive gene. "You know odds are you'll have an omega anyway, alpha/beta pairings usually lead to an omega."

"Yeah, I don't care about that though. Healthy, with no deformities will suit me. Or at least no big ones."

He chuckled at the younger man. Wondering why he'd been so hesitant to see him all this time. "Thanks for letting me come down here... It was nice to get away for a while."

The alpha's scent -still slightly tainted by the pepper spray stunt- was light and heady; Content. A scent not many people had around him. "Thanks for finally coming around..." He seemed to debate something for a moment before leaning over and scenting him. "I'll miss having you around."

He didn't know what to say so he just squeezed the alpha's shoulder tightly, hoping it conveyed even just a fraction of his feelings.

The alpha let out a shaky laugh, "You'll have to come 'round for Christmas."

Connor nodded, "I'll try."

ζ

Returning back to the station was as much a relief as it was mildly upsetting. The detective didn't know when or if he'd get another week off anytime soon. He was gonna miss the Minnesota waters for a while he could tell.

The atmosphere around the department was electric, more so than normal- Or perhaps there was a reason he didn't take breaks much. He made it to his desk undisturbed before noticing Hank wasn't in yet. A shame, he was looking forward to telling the old alpha about the crazy parties deputies throw... Those boys drink like they've got a death wish. He was sure the Lieutenant would appreciate that.

He booted up his desktop and slipped his work watch back on. Wow, Mr popular all of the sudden... He had a ton of missed calls. He was probably going to get in a lot of trouble for this. Must've been a ton of cases piling up.

The zeta shrugged it off, going to get coffee when he noticed some commotion in the breakroom. "Connor?" One of the beta officer's approached him cautiously.

Calling him by his proper name and being meek? Someone's kid was selling girls scout cookies or something... If they didn't have Thin Mints this time he wasn't buying. "What do you need?"

"You heard the news yet?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh sorry, I thought you two were close or something... Lieutenant Anderson was in an accident the other day." The beta mentioned causally, "You've been assigned half his cases."

It felt like all the air suddenly left the room. The detective blinked, paralyzed with shock. What happened? Where was Hank? Was he dead? How bad was it? -Oh shit, was his kid with him?

The beta had continued talking for a bit and moved on by the time he got hold of himself.

Frantic fear took over, he quickly tried to call the alpha only for it to ring out. Oh crap... That didn't bode well.

He managed to make it to the bathroom in a daze, trying the alpha's number again and splashing some water on his face.

Okay, be cool... Calm the hell down.

It might be nothing, maybe Hank just broke his arm and can't come back in for a while?

Focus, breathing... The AC, listen to it- feel it...

Funny how things go full circle, and he was back in this fucking room staring at his slightly disheveled appearance trying to calm down because of the Lieutenant all over again.

Once he managed to reign himself back in he decided to just go right to the captain. They were partners, surely he deserved to know what happened while he was away? He had only just walked out of the bathroom when the Sargent got into his face.

"Hey freak, where the hell you been?" The Sargent snapped, despite being a 5'3" omega she still tried to crowd him. "We've been trying to get in touch with you for three days now!"

"I was on vacation, I must have left my business line here by mistake." It was scary how easily he slipped right back into his professional persona. "My apologies, what do you need?"

"Anderson left his last report unfinished, I need it done by the end of the day or else."

Seriously? Who the hell cares about paperwork right now!? "Do you know if he's alright?"

She tilted her head with a frown, "What do you care? Enough chit chat! We need that report to continue- This fucker's just sitting around in jail until we get sorted. Hop to it!" The omega ordered dismissively.

"Yes ma'am." He nodded, glaring at the ground as she left. Despite the order he still went right into the Captain's office, he knocked but let himself in. Rather out of character for him, but he needed to know. "Captain-"

"What the hell?" Fowler hissed, looking over at the detective invading his office. "Jesus, why the hell weren't you answering your phone?"

"Is Hank okay?"

The captain raised a brow at him, "... He's alive."

He let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding but that wording didn't fill him with confidence. "What happened? Where is he? Was Cole with him?"

Fowler looked surprised, "Yeah, Cole was with him." He sighed, dragging his hand over his face. "There was a crash, Hank's in the hospital."

"Which one? Henry Ford? Where is his son?"

The captain held up his hand to silence him. "He didn't make it."

"Oh f..." He squeezed the bridge of his nose, taking a moment to compose himself. "What room?"

"I don't think they're letting him have any visitors yet-"

"What room?" The zeta demanded, with the same forceful tone he usually reserved for interrogations.

"They're not letting anyone in." The captain growled, standing to shoo him out of his office. "Focus on your work and I'll update you as soon as I get more information."

Connor was left standing in the middle of the bullpen, numb like he was in a dream.

Since he had no other choice at the moment he sat down to finish that damn report... Trying to ignore the empty desk beside him and the unfathomable loss the alpha must be going though.

Once his shift was over he made his way to the hospital. The staff was almost completely automated nowadays so his attempts to flag one down was fruitless until a petite brown haired android approached him, her false citrus scent made him queasy. "Hello sir, can I assist you?"

Oh thank God, "Do you know what room Lieutenant Hank Anderson is in?"

Her little light flickered for a moment before she answered "211B."

The detective nodded moving passed the machine, "Thank you-" It caught his arm suddenly.

"I'm sorry, visiting hours are over."

Seriously?! He flashed his ID, "I'm going to see him."

"I'm sorry Detective, but the patient isn't allowed visitors yet. Please come back tomorrow."

It must be serious if that didn't get him in... "How is he doing?"

"What is your relationship with the patient?"

"He's my friend-"

"I'm sorry Detective, that's not within acceptable parameters to give out the patient's personal details."

"Fine, I'm his lover. How is he?"

"I'm sorry, I cannot find any verification of marriage or mating. That's not within acceptable parameters to give out the patient's personal details."

Damn these things could be so frustrating! "Fuck you!" He hissed, shoving the android out of his way.

"Sir, visiting hours are over. Please come back tomorrow." The machine repeated as it followed him, "If you don't comply I'll have to call security."

"Please do." He growled, searching the floor plans. This level was A so B must be upstairs.

The android tailing him began describing him and narrating his movements to security. It reminded him of when he was rookie calling in back up. A few other android's started following him too, at this rate he'd be swarmed before he could get to the lieutenant's room.

He'd gotten to 200B when he finally ran into a human doctor, the beta was the one to finally stop him. Asking him what the hell he was doing.

"I need to see one of your patients- Hank Anderson, he's the big alpha that came in from a car crash earlier this week and-"

"I'm sorry but you can't." The doctor moved to usher him away. "He's not fit for visitors yet."

"Please, he's my partner-"

"Look I'm sorry, really I am but you can't." They met up with security and he barely managed to to avoid getting handcuffed and escorted out.

Son of a bitch!

Trying to get some sympathy from the staff here was like trying to get blood from a stone, human and android alike.

The detective sat out in the parking lot for a while before he fished out his emergency cigarettes. He hadn't had to smoke since he came to Detroit but he desperately needed one now.

After the first drag he swore he could feel the nicotine rush through his veins, all the way down to the tips of his fingers. "Shit." He signed, quitting the second time around would be a bitch...Shouldn't have done it.

He shoved that regret down with the rest of it.

The zeta came back every day for the next few days either on his lunch break or just whenever he rolled outta bed on his days off and every day it was the same. 'Come back tomorrow.'

Eventually a nurse either took pity or was just fed up with his persistent badgering and asked if he wanted to pass along some message to the alpha. He'd accepted his offer immediately

Ironically once he was given a chance to send something along he really didn't know what to say. 'Sorry' just wasn't enough. It felt hollow and weak.

Connor's train of thought was so disjointed he could barely even begin to formulate a message before it was gone. He bought one of those old fashioned paper note pads and made several attempts to write something...

Just _something_.

After his fifth attempt he just took his rambling scribbles and signed off _'1st of many.'_. Before handing it off to the confused Nurse.

"You know, he probably won't be able to read anything for a while." The blonde mentioned, with a frown.

"Why-He didn't suffer any brain damage, did he?" He couldn't keep the panic from his voice even if he'd tried.

"No, at least not that we've noticed yet..." The nurse pursed his lips, contemplating whether or not to tell him anything. "He lost his son, so he's gone into rut. He should be coming out of it soon though."

Connor wished he didn't know that now... Ruts were bad enough, but a premature rut in a hospital sounded like it's own special kind of hell.

"Don't worry we've got one of the android's taking care of him."

"Don't-!" He started before remembering his place. What was he supposed to say? _'Don't do that, he told me he didn't like androids. You can trust me more than a doctor, I'm just some asshole that works with him!'_

"Sorry man, doctor's orders." The nurse shrugged, he at least did seem genuinely sorry under that thick layer of exhaustion.

He nodded mutely. God damn...

Over the next few weeks whenever something popped into his head he'd write it down so he could give it to Simon, the nurse to pass it on to Hank. He made sure they were numbered every time in the vain attempt to try strong arm the beta nurse into giving over each one.

Sometimes when he was handing over 5 or more notes over at a time the blonde would give him a curious look, but thankfully he didn't question it.

By the time he got home he sat in his living room chain smoking and listening to that stupid album. He wasn't big on jazz but he couldn't really think of anything else to do.

If he cried a little no one needed to know...

Hell, no one would ever know. They'd never smell it.

In his professional life he'd made only 3 big mistakes;

Losing track of his partner in SWAT resulting in the beta's death... He always wondered why he survived when Baxter died, Baxter was a church going family man with small kids. Who was he? Some loner with no one relying on him, no one to really miss him if he was gone. Not in the long term, anyway.

He got the feeling everyone else thought it too.

The second, he'd shot and killed an unarmed man. The guy had ran at him, yelling out threats with something in his hands he refused to put down. He'd still been a jumpy rookie at the time and his FTO assured him it was justified, but it never felt like it was.

He hadn't slept for weeks afterwards, it still had a way of sneaking up on him sometimes. Loud noises, or joggers passing him in the dark were the most common triggers.

After that he made an effort to not reach for his service weapon as often anymore. At least not as his first line of defense.

The third was the one that broke him, he couldn't bare to do another hostage negotiation afterwards and Captain Allen was constantly on his case about fucking it up. Looking for any excuse to fire him.

Some junkie took a child hostage. The guy didn't even know the kid, just a tragic case of wrong place, wrong time. Negotiating was tricky on a good day, but delusional drug addict slipping further and further into withdrawal and avoiding any windows through pure dumb luck was nigh-on-impossible even for a seasoned negotiator. And it had ended in the worst way possible. 4 injured officers and 2 deaths. 1 civilian causality... She would've been 8 this year.

People used to whisper it when he went by or sometimes even scream it into his face but it never felt more true than right now.

He was cursed.

It took close to 3 months for Hank to get out of the hospital, odds were it'd take a good few more before he could come back to work, if he didn't just retire... Or do something a bit more drastic.

Connor wanted to go check on him but thanks to the increased workload he didn't have a chance the first night. He'd tried calling again but again it just rang out.

Maybe the alpha just didn't get around to replacing his phone yet?

There was a pretty good chance he just didn't want to be bothered yet either... No one could blame him for that.

The next evening he headed around, not sure what to do or say yet again... It was funny, he used to be so damn slick- Back in his prime he was almost never at a loss for words, nowadays he barely ever had them to begin with...

The detective went up to knock on the alpha's door. He couldn't hear anyone moving inside but he could smell it if he focused hard enough.

Sheer misery.

It hurt just to be around it, but he knocked again anyway. "Hank? You in there? It's Connor... "

Nothing.

"I stopped by the hospital but they said you checked out..."

Dead silence. What did he really expect?

It was too soon.

Way too soon.

The zeta sighed, heading back to the car. He lit up another smoke, honestly he just needed the smell of it to cover that awful funk.

His tired eyes drifted over to the album. Probably wasn't the right time but honestly when would be? His friend's life was just irrevocably changed, odds where he might never even listen to music again... A small victory for him as Hank had awful taste (bar this one album) but a bitter one at best.

He took out the notepad, there was almost no paper left now and tried to think of something to say... He'd basically monologued on and on since he got back, but there was something he'd somehow failed to mention.

Seemed obvious now, it probably should have been the first thing he wrote.

_'I missed you.'_ What was this one? _'The 74th of many.'_

He folded the page and slid it into the album cover before making his way back to the Lieutenants door and sliding it under. "Call me when you want to talk... I'll be waiting." He called, listening out for a moment, he heard some movement this time before he headed back to his car.

He'd only just opened the door when he smelt more than heard the door open. Pure unfiltered sorrow, the olfactory rendition of suffering. The detective turned to glance back, the alpha made eye contact for a brief second before looking down.

Connor waited for a moment to see if he was going to invite him in or retreat but it didn't look like Hank was in a rush to do either. Eventually he took the chance to close the car door, he didn't see any sign the lieutenant was going to slam the door in his face just yet so he crossed back over to pull him into a hug.

The alpha didn't hug back but he didn't resist either. That was probably the best he could hope for right now.

"I'm-I'm glad you're still here!"

"...That makes one us."

The detective ended up staying late with the Lieutenant. Hank didn't really speak again, at best he'd nod but he seemed completely checked out for most of their one-sided conversation. Connor didn't take it to heart, he couldn't imagine how the alpha must be feeling right now.

The last thing he'd wanted to do was leave but eventually he had to, he was needed back at the station.

It never felt more wrong to go into work.

ζ

Everyone had been surprised when the Lieutenant returned.

Not just because they'd expected him to retire but also because when he came back his scent was muted, almost unreadable. Definitely unrecognizable.

His personality took a hit too. He wasn't the most approachable person even before the accident but his stubborn thorny nature had become much more explosive and impulsive recently.

It was heartbreaking watching the once cool-headed stoic alpha unraveling...

Worst still to notice it when everyone else seemed to just over look him now too. Only gossiping about how quickly he was soiling that once pristine record of his with disciplinary warning after citation.

Connor was in the breakroom with him when Reed decided to push him aside to take his coffee. "Well well, if it isn't the defective detectives, thanks for the coffee. How 'bout you pass me some sugar?"

"You still running that smart mouth Gavin?" The alpha growled, squaring up to the smaller alpha.

The scarred detective let out a loud mocking laugh. "Oh look at you, still acting so tough even now. It's _so fuckin' pitiful_." His scent thickening the air, smoldering charcoal and spiced cinnamon sticking in the back of the other occupants' throats.

"Hank." The detective warned, trying to drag him away from the altercation. "He's not worth it, c'mon."

"Listen to your pet freak, old man."

"You pompous fucker! I was the one that promoted you, you ungrateful little-"

The alpha continued to laugh in his face, "Get the hell outta my way, you've been nothing but a screw up since."

Hank let out an indignant snarl "Say that again-"

"Hank! Reed! Get back to work already!" Fowler barked over, stepping out of his office to watch them like a disapproving father.

Gavin grumbled a slur under his breath as he stalked passed them to get to his desk.

The lieutenant continued to growl, glaring holes into the vinyl floor.

Connor knew better than to touch off him right now. "I'll get the car started, we should go try that witnesses place again. He's bound to be in at some point."

Hank nodded in acknowledgment but didn't turn to leave yet so he went out ahead of him.

His partner was still pretty tense on the road, especially when he wasn't the one driving so the younger alpha must have really got under his skin. The zeta pulled the car around and waited for the older man to catch up.

When the lieutenant got in he handed over a coffee, "Here. Stop letting that little bitch steal your stuff."

"Oh, thanks." He set it down to cool in the cup holder before casting a glance back to his partner. He was still fuming, glaring out the window with a near silent growl. "You should stop letting him wind you up- That's all he really wants you know?"

That was clearly the absolute wrong thing to say as the alpha reeled on him, "So I'm just supposed to take his shit?! I have a right to show my feelings-!"

"No you don't! Not anymore." Connor snapped back, a sad truth but one the lieutenant would have to face sooner or later. "I've been doing this for almost a quarter of a century now and I still get rookies talking down to me- You have got to get over yourself and learn to deal with it!"

"How the fuck is that fair?!"

"Who told you life is fair? Because they were lying!"

That seemed to shut the older man up for a while. He stared back out the window with a weary defeated sigh. "... Does it ever get any easier?"

The detective's eyes snapped onto his partner. Speechless for a long moment before he cleared his throat. "It can..."

"How?"

He drummed his fingers on the wheel, taking a moment to think. "Don't fight it... Like it or not, you're unpredictable now, people don't know what to expect from you anymore. And that scares them..."

Hank huffed, "So it's just you and me against the world then, huh Connor?"

"I guess so..." As a zeta he'd had his whole life to come to terms with being overlooked, feared and hated. Knowing he'd never have any children or mates...

Briefly he wondered which was worse; To never have the option, or to have it all and lose it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> This Chapter has some weird pacing, I tried my best but I've been pretty honest that these scenes were just parts I had to cut from the original chapter since they didn't fit and slowed down the pacing along with the rest of the story. I tried my best to make it make sense so hopefully it did, or was at least enjoyable regardless.
> 
> ~~((Honestly it's been weird just writing Connor as a passive protagonist more than anything else))~~
> 
> I committed to a platonic relationship, but if anyone wants it I'll write a romantic/smut sequel. That I will actually leave up to the free market to decide.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I definitively don't own the concept of Zeta's, credit goes to PoisonJack and their fic set in the Borderlands universe (I highly recommend it, or any of their work they're amazing!) 
> 
> I'm happy to bring this concept into the Detroit fandom, I think it has a lot of potential. I also just wanted to write an omegaverse fic but I didn't really feel like writing porn so... Sorry if you came for porn
> 
> I had a lot more planned for this story and I was gonna let the free market decide if I continued it but I put a lot of thought into the things that didn't fit into where it ended here so I'll probably work on a second chapter for that. If you don't care then that's fine too, I think this ended in a decent place for a one shot.  
> I'm crazy busy for the next two weeks and I want to work on other stuff that probably seems abandoned (It isn't I swear)but I'll try get the second chapter out soon enough too.  
> Either way, I hope you enjoyed!


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